PS4 Specs: Console Won't Support CDs Like PS3 Does, Sony Says

The Playstation 4 will not play CDs like its predecessors, said a Sony rep to a Japanese reporter.

That means the PS4 won't be able to play music CDs or, perhaps more alarmingly, games for the original Playstation that aren't available in other formats.

In a tweet on Thursday, Japanese reporter Reiji Asakura said a source at Sony told him the news.

ソニー・コンピュータ・エンターテンイメントのアンドリュー・ハウス氏、インタビュー終わり。まずプレイステーション4ではSACD、CDはサポートしません。

— Reiji Asakura (@ReijiAsakura) February 21, 2013

"Andrew House of Sony Computer Enterprises Department transition, end interview. SACD, CD is not supported in the first PlayStation 4," reads the tweet, according to Google Translate.

Only early versions of the Playstation 3 were able to read Super Audio CDs, anyway, and they never made it big in the United States, but even after mass adoption of mp3s and streaming music, many people still have huge collections of CDs with either music or data stored on them.

While many tech-savvy gamers shouldn't have a problem converting their music or finding new copies, it does present a barrier to unfettered enjoyment of the PS4 by more casual users -- parents or partners of the primary gamer, for instance, who might like that they can pop their favorite album into the "game box" sitting in the living room.

Still, perhaps it's time for the retirement of CDs anyway. The Macbook Air doesn't have an optical drive at all, so it can't read DVDs either, and that hasn't slowed sales in any way, nor has it caused an explosion in sales of external optical drives. People seem to be getting along fine without it.

As for old PSOne games, they're not the only ones that will be left behind. Engadget says Playstation Network games and save states won't be playable on the PS4 because of the vastly different internal architecture -- basically another PowerPC to Intel switch.

So start saving up, because everyone will have to start rebuilding their game collection once the PS4 hits the shelves.