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The PS5 DE is still blowing my mind. How did Sony deliver the most powerful $399 console ever made under our noses?
- Thread starter Cactuar
- Start date
Guess it is as I dont know anyone here who wanted to buy a digital one, they ship less digital ones and disc drive ones go instantly out of stock when they appear, DE has been up for an hour in comparison
Hell yeah dude! I skipped the PS4 so I can borrow all my friends' games :) Helps to have a huge backlog too
You act like this is the first thread you've participated in that had some "weird MegaCorp Worship". 🤷🏾♂️
They "delivered" like 20 of them. Wake me up when theyre widely available, otherwise its just a very controlled loss so they can market a lower number than the ps5 ypull actually find in stock.
Everyone was shocked. I don't remember a word being leaked by any major outlet. I've looked at many live reactions videos to the PS5 reveal, and all of them were saying "Show the PS5." No one had any knowledge of the PS5 Digital Edition. You can tell Sony knew this would be a shock by the way the reveal video was structured, revealing the DE via fancy editing and a change in the tempo of the music.
And here we are some eight months and 36 million views later and this video still makes me think, "With nearly everything getting leaked these days in some capacity, how the hell did they manage to slip this under our noses?" And at $399 more importantly. To offer the exact same specs as the PlayStation 5 for $100 less at the cost of a disc drive that an increasing number of gamers (including myself) don't use anyway is insane value. Buying a PS5 DE is like buying a PS5 on a Black Friday sale only at the launch of the system.
Except I don't even know if any PS4 Black Friday sales dropped the price of the system (Pro or otherwise) by $100, so it may be even a crazier deal than that. All of this has led me to believe the DE will be the highest selling PS5 SKU at the end of the day. Though there are several variables there, such as the ratio Sony will produce them at once production starts to ramp up. I know now they have been produced at a lower ratio, but it remains to be seen if that will hold in the future.
THE AUDACITY OF $399
The PlayStation 4 launched at $399 and it was a world of difference for Sony than the PS3's launch price, which, like the PS5, offered two different SKUS $499/$599. Obviously they preferred the PS4's launch to the PS3's, but $399 seemed like a pipe dream. Is a disc drive worth that much? Only you as a gamer can decide that for you. But for the company? Surely they're not saving $100, but then again maybe they are? The PS5 Standard and DE are essentially the exact same design except one lacks a disc drive. Maybe there was some cost-cutting done by keeping the design more or less 1 to 1. Maybe it's the talk of "They'll make more money on the back end from software." Who knows? Whatever the case, they snatched that pipe dream price from 2013 and brought it to the future.
Both Sony and Microsoft didn't want to chance 499 being too high. Especially when Sony looks back to replicate the success of PS4 which was $399. Both MS and Sony probably lose more on the cheaper discless consoles for now. It does however lock these consoles into the store so eventually they should see a return. Finally Sony was bold enough to increase to price points on its own games big and small. It will be interesting if the DE does outsell the disc console because that's going to lead to a very different outlook on the future. I think its one a lot of the industry is hoping for.
In the US, PSN sales are rarely as good as physical. As someone where saving money does matter, it's important to bring up.
Yeah, it's much different in the US because games are 60 (now 70) here. It's pretty normal to start to see games half price within a few months, so 30 USD physical. Within a year, depending on the game, you might see it 20 or 10 dollars physical. I also buy about 5-10 games a year, period, on sale or not, but generally I think I already covered 100 dollars on my PS4 in terms of physical.
PSN games go half price too at times, but it's not as consistent as physical. And of course there are lots of games that don't go on sale often.
Edit: Like, I've been waiting to buy a PS5 forever. I wouldn't choose the Digital over the Physical once it becomes available because I know in the US there are just way too many good physical sales.
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I mean, I see plenty of threads being negative towards these companies. Are we not allowed to be positive without the name-calling? Does it make me "cool" to be negative?
These are video games. They are escape.
They took an upfront hit for guaranteed $$$ down the road due to most sales having to come through PSN?
It will be interesting. I don't think either XSS or DE will outsell their counterparts but the ratio will be key. If they stay at 20-30% of all console sales in 3-4 years, I wonder if they will even make a slim digital model.
I think games going 50-70% digital doesn't mean consumers are willing to give up in used games/selling games especially with $70 games incoming. It will be interesting to see how each sku Sells once supply is acceptable all around
There we go.
Digital only is still early days, but both Sony and Microsoft are basically getting everyone used to the idea. Cut out the middle man.
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Unfortunately I can't answer that question as I am not a lawyer, sir.
...that's a really weird way to describe someone charging you more money.
Hmmm maybe I am remembering incorrectly, but for its time, Xbox 360 was literally better than all PC tech available regarding the GPU and had a tri core 6 thread CPU as PC CPUs were just starting to get 2ish. That was 399 and 299 USD for the core Version.
They're impossible to get now, but by the time there is stock it will make more sense. Look at how teh ps4 did not drop in price as much as previous consoles. It's like a "price drop" is built-in. It will be interesting if they ever come out with a 399 disk version, or bloat that back up to 499 somehow while cutting another 100 off a redesign of the digital to push it even harder.
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This is a real question. Microsoft was actually the first one to release an all digital version of a console that had the same specs as the base model (Xbox One SAD).
I generally agree with this, but there's the fact that the physical design of the digital PS5 feels like the intended profile of the system compared to the disc version.
But no Wifi, no HDMI port and most of the Day 1 died some months/years after. Maybe investing 100$ more would have been better :-D
But yeah 360 and PS3 had some awesome tech!
Even at 400 Sony would prefer everyone buy the digital I'd say. Don't forget that on PSN they get 100% of the money from their first party games and they don't have to pay the retailer's cut for third party stuff. That makes a huge difference on profitability.
i was thinking that literally today. their first party games are more than most third party which are still £59.99 - £69.99 is insane and post-launch honeymoon where i'll pay anything for new stuff, it's really putting me off anything i don't know i'll love
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Spot on. The notion that being a digital only buyer is a money bags situation is a false one. I only buy on sales and PSN has some great ones. Now yes, buying Day One you do have to pay MSRP, but unless I like a game enough to get it Day One, then I'm waiting for a sale in every other situation.
(Granted, there are those times where for some goddamn reason that ONE obscure game you want takes like two years to go on sale. I'M LOOKING YOUR WAY Y'S VIII. But in those instances I just stand firm on my "wait until sale" motto and play something else in the meantime).
Was gonna say if its a "relative to its time" thing, I didn't think the PS5 is the most powerful (although admittedly I'm not someone who has followed that sort of thing)
They can sell it for 399 because they only made like 5% DE, but they get to say they're cheaper because of it.
And the price of digital games, particularly new releases, is simply higher than retail across most markets.
In Australia, the DE could be free and it would still be a terrible value proposition given the price of digital new release games.
It's selling at a loss hoping to balance out business-wise via the digital-only aspect. They don't seem to be producing a ton of them, which I think is intentional. They took the design of the normal system, and removed the disc drive. It's really not a bad deal, but it's not exactly sleek, and not what most would call cheap.
(I do think it's low-key a great deal if you don't mind the loss of the disc drive, considering it's being sold at the MSRP of the PS4 Pro, and is a massive jump from its capabilities.)
(I do think it's low-key a great deal if you don't mind the loss of the disc drive, considering it's being sold at the MSRP of the PS4 Pro, and is a massive jump from its capabilities.)
Anybody who cares about value shouldn't be touching a DE console in Australia. PSN launch price is $125aud for next gen only games.
Pretty much.
Also, it ties you into a digital ecosystem, so there's that. I personally find the disk version better for that reason/option, and I like digital games. I just don't want to be forced into it as the only option.
Regardless, Sony likely makes more money off digital PS5 owners than disk based owners in the long term.
I guess. Me and my friends only have DE. Besides once they stop selling out as soon as they arrive in stock that won't matter. (I'd guess the stock is more like 1:4 or 5)
I went Digi, I didn't have very many physical games and liked the look of it better. I knew I was getting a Series X that would have a disc drive too
Generally happy, but I bought my first PS4 in 2018 and there wasn't always a big difference between physical and PSN prices by that point. Doing it day 1 reminded me that I'd have to be more patient for things to drop in price, or just be OK spending a little more
Generally happy, but I bought my first PS4 in 2018 and there wasn't always a big difference between physical and PSN prices by that point. Doing it day 1 reminded me that I'd have to be more patient for things to drop in price, or just be OK spending a little more
The production is split 25/75, and the last polls before launch were somewhere around 33% purchase intent versus the Disc version. So I think these hyperboles are falling flat and are disconnected from reality.