Why games must be installed on PlayStation and Xbox—but not on Switch: the technical reason behind this decision

From time to time, a recurring debate resurfaces on social media around current consoles: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch 2. Many users complain that, while on Switch 2, the experience of inserting a game into the console and playing right away is just like it used to be, on PS5 and Series X, installing games is mandatory. What many people still do not realize, however, is that this is neither a whim nor an indication that one console is “worse” or “better” than another: it is a purely technical matter related to game size, read speeds, and internal bandwidth.

The turning point for home consoles: from PS3 and Xbox 360 to PS4 and Xbox One

In the mid-1990s, cartridge-based video games gave way to CD-based games for both technical and economic reasons. Disc-based games were not only cheaper to manufacture than cartridges, but they also allowed for significantly greater storage capacity—one of the key factors that enabled Sony to dominate with the original PlayStation over its competitors.

In this context, consoles were designed to rely on disc drives, and their games were built with that limitation in mind. The drive would preload a large portion of the content into the system’s RAM, allowing, once the loading time was complete, the display of large levels, reasonably detailed visuals for the time, and high-quality music or video sequences—something that was difficult to replicate on cartridges, especially without making concessions elsewhere.

That said, the limitation was clear: many PlayStation and Sega Saturn games—both CD-based consoles—featured notably long loading times. This was not strictly due to poor optimization, but rather because developers were constrained by each system’s idiosyncrasies. Over time, optical media evolved in size and capacity: from CD to DVD, and from DVD to Blu-ray. Broadly speaking, loading-time issues persisted for two more generations: PS2–Xbox–GameCube–Dreamcast, and PlayStation 3–Xbox 360–Wii.

By the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era, it was becoming evident that as games grew increasingly ambitious—featuring more detailed character models and higher-resolution textures—the future of home consoles would resemble the PC distribution model, where physical games are installed on a hard drive rather than run directly from the disc. This was already the case for digital titles from the PlayStation Store and the Xbox 360 Marketplace.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was one of the most notable examples of a game that required mandatory installation on PS3, underscoring the technical demands of the title developed by Konami and Kojima Productions. Xbox 360, meanwhile, introduced optional game installation to the hard drive via a software update around 2008, which helped reduce loading times and eased strain on the disc drive, extending the console’s lifespan.

At this point, it was clear that games were increasing in complexity and size far faster than optical drive read speeds were improving. This led to a drastic shift in approach for the next generation. With the launch of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2013, installing games became mandatory for a very simple reason: titles for the then-new generation were designed around hard drive read speeds, not disc drive speeds. Adapt or fall behind.

Mandatory installation on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X: a technical necessity

PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X launched in 2020 and were developed following the same design philosophy as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, released seven years earlier. Their physical games, published on Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, can store up to 100 GB of data on triple-layer discs. However, the theoretical maximum read speed of these consoles’ disc drives is around 100 MB/s—far too low to sustain the constant data streaming required by modern games without introducing frequent loading times or bottlenecks.

In this context, the disc drive’s primary role is to authenticate the disc and verify that it is a legitimate copy rather than a pirated one. Once the initial checks are complete, the console uses the drive to install the game onto internal storage. And this is the crux of the issue: both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X feature high-capacity internal SSDs with bandwidth and read speeds far beyond what the disc drive can provide.

PlayStation 5 uses a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD capable of 5.5 GB/s raw sequential read speeds, with 8–9 GB/s effective throughput thanks to hardware-based Kraken compression. The design philosophy centers on extreme bandwidth and dedicated compression, enabling massive real-time asset streaming and near-total elimination of loading times, with worlds rebuilt “on the fly” as you play. Xbox Series X, by contrast, features a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with 2.4 GB/s raw sequential read speeds and up to 4.8 GB/s effective throughput via BCPack compression. Its approach prioritizes a balance between bandwidth and efficiency, leveraging software solutions and techniques such as Velocity Architecture to optimize data flow.

This does not mean that all PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X discs are “fake physical” releases because they do not allow instant play. While it is true that some releases include only minimal files and require downloading the full game from the internet—such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle—this is not the general rule. In most cases, the disc contains the bulk of the data, even though installation to the SSD remains mandatory, along with a possible optional patch once connected to the internet.

The case of Nintendo Switch and its successor, Nintendo Switch 2, is particularly interesting. Nintendo preserves the classic experience of “take the game out of the box, insert it into the console, and play.” This is not a matter of romanticism or nostalgia, but of architecture: both the console designs and their games are built around very different technical requirements.

Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2: why their games let you play immediately without installation

Since the launch of the original Nintendo Switch in 2017, the company has used a proprietary game card format with capacities of up to 32 GB and approximate read speeds of 50–100 MB/s. This represents a reasonable balance between maximum game size and the console’s ability to read data directly from the cartridge.

Even so, digitally installed titles can benefit from faster load times. The base model’s 32 GB eMMC storage and the OLED model’s 64 GB eMMC storage offer read speeds of up to 300 MB/s—three to six times faster than game cards. It is also important to remember that this is a console designed for portability and for switching between handheld and docked play in seconds, a factor that influences all of its design decisions.

As a result, its games were never comparable in raw technical ambition or performance to those released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Examples include ports such as DOOM or The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which run with significantly lower performance and visual fidelity than their “full” counterparts.

With Switch 2, launched in 2025, a similar situation applies. Nintendo can fully exploit the upgraded hardware to deliver technically solid, high-performance experiences such as Donkey Kong Bananza. However, ports of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X games are only feasible with substantial cutbacks or alternative approaches.

This is the case with Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, which does not have a traditional physical release on the platform. The sheer data volume and read-speed requirements far exceed what a game card can provide, leading to its release on so-called game-key cards—one of the aforementioned “fake physical” formats that include minimal data and require an internet connection to download the full game.

For reference, Nintendo Switch 2 game cards offer read speeds of approximately 90–100 MB/s, while microSD Express cards can reach 800–900 MB/s. The crown jewel remains the internal UFS 3.1 storage, with read speeds of up to 2,000 MB/s—well below the SSDs found in PS5 and Xbox Series X, but still remarkably high for a hybrid, portable console.

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