The rumour doing the rounds of the next PS5 having an external/detachable blu-ray drive strike me as odd. The current design makes the disc drive look like an afterthought already.
Sony to Launch New PlayStation 5 With a Detachable Disc Drive, Sources Suggest - Insider Gaming
The new PlayStation 5 will have a new detaching dics drive that can be bought separately from the console, sources suggest.insider-gaming.com
It would let Sony bump up the price on the disc version by saying 'look, you get $50 off this $200 peripheral. Bargain!'
I don't think it would be odd if they do it. Listen at the end of the day with Digital gaining more and more market share they are going to find ways of maximizing the dwindling amount of people who want optical discs.
Right now its what $400/$500 for the system. They can just make a slim model all with the same tooling and casing and simply make the $400 slim 1TB and the $500 slim 2TB or just go to one sku at 1TB for $400 and then a psvr bundle for $800-$1k and then have a $100-200 add on for anyone who still wants discs. In the future they can just continue to support that add on drive for the ps5 pro or ps6 too.