Earlier this week, during a special PlayStation 5-centred presentation, Sony finally revealed the price of the PlayStation 5 — which will be retailing for $499.99 USD or $399.99 USD depending on which console players decide to go for.
We have known for a while that Sony would be offering two different models of the PlayStation 5; both will be able to run the exact same games, but one of them will feature an Ultra HD Blu-Ray Disc Drive, while the other will only be able to play digital games.
What we didn't know is just how much of a difference in price not featuring a disc reader would make. Don't get the wrong idea, this is great news for everybody, because it gives players a choice, while also not really offering a low-end console with missing features.
Sure, the disc drive could be considered a missing feature, but many will likely see it as an addition, especially in this day and age in which a sizeable amount of players have been going digital in this current generation of consoles.
Sony is actually seeing it in a similar way, as they know that demand for the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition will be higher than demand for the Standard version of their next-gen console.
In a recent interview with AV Watch, as transleted by the people over at Video Games Chronicle, PlayStation Chief Operating Officer Jim Ryan has revealed that they are, indeed, doing their best to predict demand for the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition — especially since this is the first time they've offered two versions of a console.
"The ratio between the Digital Edition and the disc drive model is currently something we cannot disclose at this time. We cannot give specific information on numbers, but we can say that we plan to produce the necessary number of units to meet the demand for that model type," explained Ryan.
"However, we've never produced two different console models at the same time before so deciding on the right number and the right ratio is very hard to know. We are doing our best to predict demand," he then added.
It is unfortunate that Ryan won't disclose if the ratio is 50-50 like one would expect, but it wouldn't be surprising to find out that they have produced more units of the digital edition; the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition's $399.99 USD price tag is ridiculously appealing, after all.
PlayStation 5 is expected to launch on Thursday the 12th of November in the United States, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea; worldwide release on Thursday the 19th of November.