PS5 vs PS5 Digital Edition: which should you buy?

[What Hi-Fi?]

Sony has not one but two new consoles waiting in the wings. Let's see which is right for you: the PS5 or PS5 Digital Edition.

PS5 vs PS5 Digital Edition: which should you buy? : Read more

 

[Rube2k]

There are two missing issues in this article and it’s analysis. One is price of content. Visit the PS4 store and take a look at the price of The Last of Us Part 2 - about £60 today (22.08.2020). On Amazon it’s £41 so after a few games the disc drive will pay for itself.
Secondly (but kind of related) I can then give the disc to my friend or my nephew and they can play it for free or even pay me £20 - win/win.

Digital edition should be avoided for these reasons.

 

[ImNotHamza]

There are two missing issues in this article and it’s analysis. One is price of content. Visit the PS4 store and take a look at the price of The Last of Us Part 2 - about £60 today (22.08.2020). On Amazon it’s £41 so after a few games the disc drive will pay for itself.
Secondly (but kind of related) I can then give the disc to my friend or my nephew and they can play it for free or even pay me £20 - win/win.

Digital edition should be avoided for these reasons.

Well yes, avoid the digital edition if you like having discs.

 

[HisDudeness]

Well yes, avoid the digital edition if you like having discs.

Avoid the digital edition if you're planning on buying more than 4 games, because in that case it is most likely the more expensive option.

 

[RedPanda1987]

Avoid the digital edition if you're buying it purely to save money, really. I'm considering it because I like owning digital games. They're a lot more convenient and not always more expensive (other stores sell codes, and there are sales). But yes, it's not likely to end up cheaper, or even as cheap, as buying the disc model and accompanying discs.

 

[HisDudeness]

Avoid the digital edition if you're buying it purely to save money, really. I'm considering it because I like owning digital games. They're a lot more convenient and not always more expensive (other stores sell codes, and there are sales). But yes, it's not likely to end up cheaper, or even as cheap, as buying the disc model and accompanying discs.

Why deliberately choose the device with less features, knowing that it will most likely be more expensive in the long run?

 

[RedPanda1987]

Why deliberately choose the device with less features, knowing that it will most likely be more expensive in the long run?

My point is it's only more expensive vs buying discs. If I buy the standard PS5 (which I might, I still haven't decided) then I'll still probably be buying at least 90% of my games digitally because I'll take the convenience over saving money (especially as I rarely bother selling games on when I'm done, so they just take up space and don't always save much money anyway). That situation may not apply to many people (I have no idea) but I'm sure I'm not the only one, so there certainly is a market for the digital edition.

 

[lacuna]

I used to buy discs for my PS3/PS4 from secondhand shops (CEX etc.) and then trade them in for the next game. I don't really do that anymore because it isn't a huge saving over a digital copy when they are on sale, which is quite frequent. For example, Doom (2016) is currently £12.84 on Amazon but only £4.79 on PS Store

I also now have a subscription to PS Now which provides me with more than enough to keep occupied. I have a 4tb external drive and with 77 games that is only about half full.

It is likely that I will get the version with the disc drive though because it isn't vastly more expensive and since I won't be buying it this year the prices are likely to fall anyway.

 

[dcsprior]

There's an error in the article:

If you want your games console at the heart of your entertainment set up, to frequently double as a DVD/Blu-ray/CD player, you'll likely want the full-fat PS5.

A PS5 won't be doubling as a CD player, as it doesn't support CD playback - list of disc types it supports.

This lack of support is apparently down to a physical incompatibility (it doesn't have a laser capable of the wavelength required to read CDs) rather than software, if so then it's not like some future update will add it either.