Sony Group Corp. raised the price of its PlayStation 5 console by around 25% in Europe and in the UK ahead of a likely US increase.
The company announced the decision on its PlayStation blog, with Australia and New Zealand also affected, citing inflation and “a backdrop of a challenging economic environment.” The PS5 will cost €500 in Europe and £430 in the UK from Monday.
Gentle reminder that you can always build yourself a gaming PC for less, especially now that thanks to Proton 75% of the top 1000 titles run on Linux.
You can build yourself a PC for less.
You can’t build yourself a more powerful PC for less. Especially since the PS5 Pro isn’t getting a price bump in Europe.
You can barely find a dedicated GPU for less money than a base PS5 at all these days. I guess if you go dumpster diving or are very patient in a used parts website you could technically get there, but it’d be a bit of a project.
On initial purchase, without used parts, no. But once you consider savings from online subscriptions over the lifespan, yes easily.
Right.
But right now, to play Fortnite tomorrow for 500 bucks that PC will give you worse looks and performance than a PS5.
I don’t mind the notion that it’s still a better purchase and you get a computer to work and study out of that deal and you have an easier upgrade path and no need to pay subscriptions. All that as it may be.
But it’s not a no-brainer at all and it’s more expensive in the vast majority of scenarios.
I’d be less nitpicky about this, but it actually was true for a couple of years in the Xbox 360/PS3 generations, when consoles were very limited by several parts of their hardware and PC GPUs were amazing value for money. Think 970-1080Ti range.
But that has changed a lot and it’s important to acknowledge that while consoles have become less value by having fewer exclusives and more upkeep costs through online subscriptions, PCs have become less value by an absolutely bonkers bananas insane reduction in GPU availability and value for money. Thanks, cryptobros and AIbros.
It unfortunately takes some thinking and checking options to see what makes sense for a gamer on a budget these days. It’s a lot harder than it used to be across the board, and that sucks.
New, it’s hard to get under $500, but unless you plan to play entirely offline you will need a PS Plus subscription, which costs at least $80/year. If you have the console for 5 years, that’s an extra $400 just to use the thing and you can easily build a brand new PC that demolishes a PS5 for $900.
There is still a bigger initial cost, but you save so much in the longterm with a PC. I understand why people go for consoles, it’s so simple, but I’d never recommend one ever.
And that includes many PlayStation exclusive games that are currently available on steam