The price of the PlayStation 5 might still be a mystery - alongside its release date - but that hasn't stopped Hong Kong retailer Play-Asia from letting customers pre-order the system for $699. There has been no word from either Microsoft or Sony regarding the price of the next-generation of consoles as both hold off so that they can potentially undercut their rival in the future.
Sony revealed many games during this week's PS5 event, most of which are coming 2021-22 and among the highlights was the long-awaited first glimpse of the PS5 console hardware, in all of its wireless router and meme-worthy glory. It wasn't all positive, however, as there were two major omissions from the PS5 reveal event. We still have no idea when it will be released, outside of a tenuous 2020 holiday season window, and we still don't know how much the PS5 will cost.
Sony hasn't officially announced the price of the PS5, but that hasn't stopped some retailers from jumping the gun and slapping a number on pre-orders. It's now possible to pre-order PlayStation 5 systems from Hong Kong retailer Play-Asia for the princely sum of $699, which is close to a leaked price listed by Amazon UK for PS5 consoles before the reveal event took place. The pre-orders list December 2020 as the release date, but this is almost certainly a placeholder. Another listing included a November 20, 2020 date for DualSense PS5 controllers sold separately which could hint at the console's release date.
There are several reasons to doubt that the Play-Asia price will be the standard cost for the system. For one thing, the $699 price is the same for both the disc-based and digital versions of the PS5 on the website. The digital version of the system should be cheaper at launch than the disc model (assuming hard-drive capacity is similar), so listing them both at the same price seems like an error.
Despite the PS5's hardware launch line-up reveal, which included accessories pictured above, the issue of price is still a major part of the discourse surrounding the system. The technology of the PS5 is impressive, but anything over four or five hundred dollars could spell doom for the system, especially in the wake of upcoming financial uncertainty regarding COVID-19. It's unlikely that the PlayStation 5 would launch for seven hundred dollars at the end of 2020, but if it did, and if Microsoft did the same for the Xbox Series X, then the next generation of systems could see a rough holiday season.
The PlayStation 5 is due to be released during the 2020 holiday season.
Source: Play-Asia