Sony has announced their new models for the PlayStation 5, and the fans are not happy about it, at all.
Sony’s announcement of their latest PlayStation 5 SKUs corroborates some of the rumors that we have been reading about the console. As some leakers revealed earlier, Sony managed to shrink some components of the console, and they decided to make a marginally smaller console, priced at $ 500. While we reported on rumors referring to this as a the PlayStation 5 Slim, clearly Sony did not go that far in miniaturizing the hardware at all.
They are also releasing an all-digital version of the PlayStation 5, priced at $ 450 and upgradeable with a disc drive afterwards. This is a proprietary disc drive from Sony, that will fit nicely in between the console’s face plates, and is priced at $ 80. Both these new models will be replacing the models that they have been making until now.
So, why are the fans unhappy? As noted by TheGamer, this announcement brought up a few issues gamers have been having with the company, as well as just some joking around.
A lot of fans immediately noticed the small horizontal stand that helps keep the console upright. That’s been prime for joke material, but we’ll skip ahead to the other things, that Sony’s own fans should pay more attention to.
First off, the consoles no longer ship with the vertical stand, that was free on the older, and bigger models. The vertical stands are now a separate $ 30 purchase. Now, obviously, they were replaced by the new horizontal stand, but this decision seems like it wasn’t made with enough foresight. It may have been better if Sony disregarded aesthetics and made a more practical newer design, perhaps one that doesn’t even need stands.
On top of that, both of the new models are more expensive than the older ones by $ 50. Both of them do also feature more storage, raising capacity to 1 TB, so Sony can say that there is added value to these models.
However, adding up the cost of a discless PlayStation 5, a disc drive, also proprietary to Sony, and their official stand, at $ 450 + 80 + 30, a new PlayStation owner can find themselves spending a staggering $ 560.
Taking to some online response we have curated ourselves, madcap412 succinctly puts together a truth some Sony fans may not one to confront:
“This gen, PS has increased the prices of:
-Videogames ($70)
-All tiers of PS+.
-PS5 Slim digital edition
-PS5 consoles everywhere (in the US with forced bundles)
-PS5 slim vertical stand
I still remember being told that paying $70 was gonna keep prices low for gaming lmao”
