From an opinion piece on GamesIndustry.biz concerning the lately launched PS5 Professional that went on sale this week: What I might argue is definitely extra fascinating about PS5 Professional in a wider perspective is not what Sony has accomplished to the chips within the system — it is what they’ve chosen to not embrace, and what it tells us concerning the decision-making course of that is doubtless occurring for the corporate’s future {hardware}. PS5 Professional does not have a disc drive. Anybody who desires to play disc-based video games on the system might want to purchase one of many add-on drives Sony began promoting when the PS5 Slim mannequin was launched, including additional to the price of the already very costly system.
So as to add insult to harm, Sony does not appear to have made any effort in anyway to make sure that these drives are literally well-stocked for the launch of the Professional. I can solely converse on to the scenario in Japan, the place they have been out of inventory at most main retailers for months and even second-hand items are being offered at three to 4 instances SRP by scalpers. However asking round means that the scenario is not a lot better in different areas. That is a really tough welcome to PS5 Professional possession for anybody upgrading who has a group of video games on disc.
It is potential, after all, that Sony excluded the drive just because its value would push the Professional’s price ticket even greater. Nonetheless, the incongruity of Sony’s “Professional” console missing the fundamental means to play the video games Sony sells at retailers all world wide is hanging, and it is troublesome to see the choice to simply accept that incongruity — and the inconvenience it might inevitably trigger for patrons — as something apart from strategic.
Digital gross sales make up an even bigger and larger portion of the business’s revenues yearly, however bodily recreation gross sales are nonetheless a really large deal — and bodily video games are merchandise that fall outdoors the management of publishers and platform holders in a means that they’ve discovered more and more irritating in recent times. Individuals who purchase bodily video games can promote them second-hand or lend them to their pals, retailers with bodily video games in inventory can low cost them or embrace them in bundles as they see match.
