The PS5
The PS5 or PlayStation 5 will be on the market at the end of 2020. It offers a great graphic leap forward over two editions, one of which is 100% dematerialised! Release date, price and data sheet… We tell you everything we already know about the PS5.
With the release of the Xbox One X in 2017 and increasingly aggressive pricing from Microsoft, one would have thought that Sony was under pressure. In reality everything is going well for the Japanese firm, which continues to lead the way against its American competitor. In fact, the PS4 is the second best-selling console of all time. The PS4’s catalogue is still selling very well and the popularity of the console released in 2013 is not decreasing. Despite these good results, the PS4 is now in its seventh year of existence: Sony has therefore decided to give it a successor… the PS5!
Sony should launch the console by the end of 2020. The design, technical specifications and even its video game catalogue have been partly unveiled. So, want to know everything about Sony’s new console? This is where it all happens.
How much does the PS5 cost?
The price of the two editions of the PS5 remains a mystery. According to a Microsoft ex, Mike Ybarra, finding a price for the PS5 is a lot more complicated than finding a price for the Xbox Series X. A situation complicated by very high manufacturing costs this year. The PS5 could indeed cost €450 to manufacture.
So there are two possibilities. The first is that the price will easily exceed €450. Or Sony will subsidize its console to keep the selling price between 400 and 500 euros. Rumour has it that the selling price of one of the two models will be $499 – which, as you’ll notice, leaves the field open for both scenarios.
If this is the price of the console with Blu-Ray player, there’s no doubt that the PS5 Digital Edition will sell for much less. Based on the price difference between the Xbox One S and the Xbox One S All-Digital, the PS5 Digital Edition should be sold for between 50 and 100 euros less than its big sister.
So we could have a standard PS5 at $499 and a PS5 Digital Edition priced between $399 and $449. Conversely, if it is the price of the Digital Edition, the price of the PS5 could be as high as $599.
When will the PS5 be released?
The only official release date revealed by Sony at this stage is “the 2020 holiday season”. Sony unveiled the design of its two consoles at a webcast event on June 11, 2020. Further events are planned between now and the end of 2020 to find out more about its exclusive features, pricing and exact release date, which has not yet been announced.
An event will take place between now and the end of July 2020 to announce more PS5 exclusives and maybe some of the info we’re missing on the device such as its exact launch date. Rumour has it that the PS5 will be launched on November 14th in Japan before a worldwide launch a week later, on November 20th.
Which design for the PS5?
It was at the end of the June 11, 2020 conference that Sony finally unveiled the design of its new console. The PS5 adopts a futuristic look, very different from the visuals of the developer version that had leaked a few months earlier. The console will not have a “U shape”, but will take the form of a box arranged vertically or horizontally with rounded shapes and white and black plastic elements.
How many versions of PS5 will be released?
Sony has planned to release two versions of its console: one rather classic with a disc player, and the other… without a Blu-Ray player. Called Digital Edition, this console will be entirely based on a download system. Never before has Sony released a home console without a disc player!
Moreover, the Digital Edition of the PS5 is reminiscent of the Xbox One S All Digital Edition, the optical drive-free version of the Xbox One S, released in 2019. Microsoft’s console, which was so criticized at the time of its release, has finally been emulated by Sony. The absence of an optical drive seems to be the only difference between the two models, both in terms of hardware and design.