PlayStation 5 Provides Early Hints to Sony's Future of Gaming

After watching the reveal of the PlayStation 5 console last week, something has become clear to me – this is the generation Sony is going to truly embrace digital services. The biggest indicator as to how much, though, is going to lie in just how much difference there will be in price between the two units.

Looking at both the Digital Edition and “full fat” PlayStation 5 consoles together, I think it’s pretty fair to say that Sony really wants you to purchase the Digital Edition. The disc drive equipped model looks like it has had a tumour attached after the design phase after Sony realised that not having physical media presence would turn out badly (jokes aside, I don’t believe Mark Cerny and his team would seriously consider releasing an exclusively disc-less console yet).

It is therefore interesting to consider just how much the difference will be between these two editions. I share the view that Sony will heavily discount the Digital Edition – potentially up to $150 or £130 as Linus Sebastian has suggested – to force players away from physical media. The effect of this brings a reduced retailer cut for each game sale, reduced manufacturing costs by not including a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray drive, and a customer reliance on services such as PlayStation Now.

Personally, I struggle to see Sony opting for a small £50 difference. At that point, the majority of gamers would surely go for the more expensive model to keep the handy disc drive. Let’s not forget that the second hand market for console games is still very strong, particularly in part because the price of digital games in several markets can be multiple times more expensive. But at £100, £150, whatever it is, you’re introducing a much greater dilemma. Am I saving money spending this much more for the disc drive? How many physical games will I purchase (on average, the typical console player owns about 10)? Am I going to subscribe to PS Now anyway?

For this to be effective I would expect Sony to increase the library (and probably the price) on PS Now to make it a true competitor to Microsoft’s Game Pass. It is a competitor at the moment, sure, but Game Pass has more games available, making it more expensive. The other side to this, though, is how Sony are going to support backwards compatibility of PS4 games on the Digital Edition. There’s no slot to load your games in, so will you be able to stream them? If that’s the case, how will Sony determine what games you actually own, if you have the discs? Will the entire library be available on PS Now? I’m sure there are a lot of players who will sell their PS4 to make funds for a PS5. If your games aren’t supported, do you really want to get rid of your old console right away? A lot of questions still to answer.

On the other side of the fence, Microsoft has made no confirmations as to whether there will be a Series X model with no disc drive. The Redmond-based company is no stranger to this, having already released an All-Digital Xbox One S. I would be surprised if Microsoft doesn’t offer a subsidised Xbox Series X console without a disc drive, pushing Game Pass further than it is now and perhaps going a similar route as Sony is doing – a reliance on its own online services. Or, maybe this is where Lockheart comes in; a much cheaper entry point, but an increased dependence on the cloud.

There are still a few months to go until release, and much more for both companies to share. But it will definitely be interesting to see just how far Sony wants to go with a digital only future – and the price alone should be a good indicator as to how they envisage the future.