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PlayStation 5: Nov 12 / Nov 19 - $399/$499

I think we know by now SonyGAF has zero intellectual honesty or consistency. It's all a PR game for fan boy warriorz who wish they were on the Sony payroll.

That said, the $400 price point is a good one for the digital edition. Sony's hand was forced by the $300 Series X. Both companies are going to lose money on the digital consoles. Sony doesn't have the cash reserves for a battle of attrition but they do have significantly better global mindshare. So both companies are going with the "make money on the razor blades" model as should be expected.

This should be interesting to see how it plays out. We'll get to see how much price matters vs perceived value. It's clear the better hardware value at the low end is the digital PS5. But will the Series S $100 lower price plus Game Pass make up for it? Xbox may consider a quick price drop to $249 and/or include some value add stuff like digital game bundles and/or 12-month Game Pass subs (if not at launch then soon after).

The value proposition is reversed at the top end with Series X holding the hardware advantage at the same price and Sony offering the promise of more/better exclusives in later months. The launch window will show us if a more powerful Xbox at the same price can blunt the projected Playstation advantage. I suspect PS5 will maintain a similar hardware sales lead this gen of 2:1, but it's going to play out a little differently as it's pretty clear MS's strategy depends far less on hardware sales to hit profit targets.

From a consumer standpoint this played out well. MS forced Sony to go with a lower $400 price point (that they are most likely losing money on per unit). And gamers have two good options at a cheap entry point.

Personally, I'd go with PS5 digital for "only" $100 more. But we have to remember that for many families - especially in the middle of a protracted pandemic depression - they may not be able to budget that extra $100 so the Series S wins for that subset.

I'll be picking up both $500 consoles and calling it a day...until maybe picking up a presumed "special edition" of the S. For me the 512gb drive is too small but release a 1tb version and I'll put one in my spare bedroom.

I've been thinking I might wait for a slim redesign of the PS5 as that thing is ginormous with an ugly as sin color scheme (and I keep going back n forth on whether or not I like the design...sometimes I appreciate the design risk, other times it just looks like a tacky piece of Chinese garbage). Ultimately, I don't know if I can resist any new launch console. If Sony surprises us with a black variant I'm 100% in.

This is a very well thought out post and wish we had more of this type of engagement vs the drive by shit posting we see in every Xbox thread
 
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Yes I know a lot of people don't mind it and it's a very good price but I'm not touching a digital-only console with a pole. MS tried to pull alot of shady stuff back in the day and there was a lot of (deserved) backlash. Now a lot of people are ok with this "smoth" transition from both MS and Sony but the result wont be so good for the consumer.

It's inevitable we all know but I will never play along with it as long as there's options. Then we'll see.
Agreed, mate. Imagine buying a game just to play 2 hrs only to never touch it again, just like the steam library meme. I mean, im not rich so if i see a game thats taking up shelf space, i try to sell it, even if its a minuscule amount of money. I do that with football titles every year. And guess what, it right is being taken away very soon.

Sony is setting this industry standard, and imaging paying €80 for fifa/madden/cod and every other yearly bi yearly titles which rehashes same game/assets every year. I mean i genuinely think there are games that deserve top dollars but ultimately, i have to sidestep from this practice sooner or later because there are far to many predator publishers than the likes of CDPR or RS.
 
The 100 dollar difference is maddening. Its like they are trying to take the power away from consumers by discouraging to go for physical version.

From a consumer standpoint I agree 100%.

From their standpoint, they make more profit on digital sales AND don't have to compete with used sales once physical is gone. So it's to their benefit to encourage the digital version of the console. They are basically subsidizing the digital console bc in the end its more profitable.

That said, the ultimate death of physical is exaggerated. It'll be around in some degree for at least one more generation after this.
 

KO7

Member
Ouch, $630 CAD pre-taxes for the disc version. They just wouldn’t match MS’ $600 price huh?
 

CouzinD

Member
Everyone quoting $399 don't care about the disk drive all of a sudden? What happened to muh series S is going to fail with no drive crowd?

I don’t think it’s the lack of Disc drive that would make the S fail. It’s the lack of horsepower inside it compared to the PS5 DE.

Not that I think the S will fail, it’s dirt cheap for the casuals or a bedroom unit, but it’s nothing compared to the DE.
 
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Chun Swae

Banned
From a consumer standpoint I agree 100%.

From their standpoint, they make more profit on digital sales AND don't have to compete with used sales once physical is gone. So it's to their benefit to encourage the digital version of the console. They are basically subsidizing the digital console bc in the end its more profitable.

That said, the ultimate death of physical is exaggerated. It'll be around in some degree for at least one more generation after this.
You guys do know a standalone 4K UHD blu ray player costs more than 100 dollars right? It's literally pro consumer to cut the price of something after taking out a feature, what are you guys on about?
 
tenor.gif


It's a great price.
 
Why do I get the feeling that Sony may make up for the 399 price for the DE by charging more for the digital version of the games during sales etc..than what you be able to get the physical copy for? Like even higher prices than current gen?

That may make the 499 PS5 the better overall value? 🤷‍♂️
Exactly!! Retailers regularly discount games to clear inventory. You dont get that with digital sales. However Sony is pretty good about playstation store sales. You just wont
get best bargain bin clearance prices.
 

supernova8

Banned
Looks like many people were right with PS5 and SeX prices.

Looks like a logical flow.

- Series S $300 for people who want in as cheap as possible
- PS5 DE $400 for people who are all in for digital
- PS5 disc $500, not a good value as SeX is $500. $450 would be more reasonable, but might well round off to the nearest $100
- Series X $500, most powerful system of them all

Damn you're visiting some high-end hookers.
 
I don’t think it’s the lack of Disc drive that would make the S fail. It’s the lack of horsepower inside it compared to the PS5 DE.

Not that I think the S will fail, it’s dirt cheap for the casuals or a bedroom unit, but it’s nothing compared to the DE.

No one outside of enthusiasts will care about tflops, ram speed ect if the S plays the same a games as X with a resolution drop. But I guess we'll see over holiday
 

CouzinD

Member
It was more than xbox and so y had to adjust their prices

That I do believe. I just always believed they do what they did last time, wait, and see what Xbox did, and try to come as close as possible. And they probably have.

I just don’t ever think it was going to be £600 right out the gate. Pure fantasy.
 
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Metnut

Member
So Demon’s Souls is conformed as a launch title, the pricing is 399/499, and FF16 was announced and looks like it’ll have a good story but people are mad because some games might come out on PC at a later date?
 
Told you guys a $50 discount would do nothing that's why its a $100 difference. They saw what happened with the Xbox SAD with only a $50 discount, it was not flying off shelves.

ManaByte ManaByte and @prinz_valium how does the salt taste?

This is what ManaByte ManaByte said.

$599
$499




"I think the best way that we can address this is by providing the best possible value proposition that we can. I don't necessarily mean lowest price. Value is a combination of many things. In our area it means games, it means number of games, depth of games, breadth of games, quality of games, price of games... all of these things and how they avail themselves of the feature set of the platform."

And after seeing that quote from Jim Ryan it proves that Ryan was correct. It's pretty obvious at this point he was talking about the Xbox Series S and not the Xbox Series X. I don't blame ManaByte ManaByte for thinking he was talking about the Series X when the Series X was the only system announced at that point.
 

KO7

Member
As someone who often trades in games to recoup costs, I’m going to have to pony-up for the disc version.

How good is Sony usually at discounting digital games’ prices on their online store btw (compared to retail stores)?
 

bargeparty

Member
You seen digital sales of anything newer than two years? I mean if you can wait for a digital sale more power to you

Show me physical disc sales? Those days of pre-order discounts from Amazon and Best Buy are over.

It's $10 and you guys are going crazzzzzy. There's multiple ways to get online keys far as I know though I don't use it much.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
I think $499 Canadian for the digital is fine, that's a 25% conversion rate, about right. The $629 for the disc version doesn't affect me so I don't care, LOL.

I think $499 is a really good price point for Sony, will sell well.
 

sixamp

Member
You guys have to remember that the series x and S info was leaked and only because of the leak was sony able to adjust their prices. So if the leaked didn't happen the series S could have made more sense because whatever the original prices were for the ps5's they were more that $100 than the series S. So whoever leaked the info should be castrated
 
Show me physical disc sales? Those days of pre-order discounts from Amazon and Best Buy are over.

It's $10 and you guys are going crazzzzzy. There's multiple ways to get online keys far as I know though I don't use it much.
Think you're missing the point but that's ok. It's $10 per game, how many games you buy each year?
 
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