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Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro has been announced for the holiday season. Following the reveal of the PS5 Pro release date, many fans immediately noticed the complete lack of a disc drive from Sony’s “pro” grade console.
Priced at an eye-watering $699.99, the new Pro machine will require gamers to purchase an additional disc drive at a cost of $79.99. All in all, gamers who wish to have a Pro console that can play discs are spending $779.98 on an improved console.
PS5 Pro is bad news for physical games
The arrival of the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition and Xbox Series S already spelt bad news for gamers who like to own their games. As we’ve seen, games such as P.T. can be removed from sale, axed from stores and taken away from gamers at a moments notice if a console manufacturer wishes to do so.
In fact, with the closure of Concord, multiple gamers have had the game wiped from their accounts. Games journalists who reviewed the extremely short-lived PlayStation shooter have received messages from Sony saying that they’ve stripped them of the game.
While a physical release of Concord won’t do much, as that particular game is server-dependent, the ability to own games on disc means that you actually own that game. However, with Sony’s push to make disc drives an additional purchase on both base PS5 and PS5 Pro for gamers, they are more dependent than ever on Sony’s service, Sony’s prices and Sony’s terms and conditions.
PlayStation isn’t alone in this, Xbox is similar, with the company also moving to incentivise gamers to pay for games on their service instead of via a third party like Amazon or GameStop. It is something to worry about. With games often stripped from stores due to licensing issues, a la Forza, or features changed in bad updates (Risk of Rain 2), there are always reasons to keep a physical copy around.
Poor value overall
Outside of the reasons why not including a disc drive is bad in the long run, the decision is shocking in the short term as well. At a launch price of $799.99, the same as decent gaming PCs these days, the lack of a disc drive is a horrid value proposition.
While the improvements to games are decent for those with massive 4K, or even 8K, displays, every game still needs to run on a base PS4. Furthermore, cross-platform games still need to be designed with Xbox Series S in mind, and many will want to target Nintendo Switch 2 as well.
For a “Pro” grade console, the removal of a disc drive is a slap in the face. It’s like Apple removing the camera on an iPhone 16 Pro Max, or Tesla removing rear seats from new cars. (Wait, don’t give Elon Musk any ideas.) For $799.99, or the equivalent of $900 in the UK, you’re actively missing out on features the base system has.
Nevertheless, PS5 Pro releases in stores and online on November 7, 2024. Learn where and when to pre-order the system here. You might want to look at a disc drive while you’re at it.
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