Sony PlayStation 5 To Launch In November; Price Starts At $499.99

Sony is launching its next-generation PlayStation 5 console in November. The company announced on Wednesday that the console would launch at $499.99 and $399.99 for the no-disc drive version, setting the stage for a year-end showdown with Microsoft’s Xbox Series X.

Microsoft announced last week that the Xbox Series X would launch on Nov. 10 at $499.99. The Xbox Series X’s launch will coincide with that of the less powerful Xbox Series S, which will launch at $299.99.

While the Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X will launch at the same price, some gaming analysts say Sony may have the upper hand in the showdown because of its PS5 Digital Edition. This version of the PS5, which will cost $399.99, “offers a substantial discount at no cost in terms of performance or hardware, besides the disc reader,” said analyst Guilherme Fernandes.

The cheaper digital version will mark Sony’s first departure from the recent generations of the console. The PS5 Digital Edition will be predominantly white and will not feature a disc drive as it heads toward a digital-only future.

Both the standard PS5 and the Digital Edition will sport an eight-core AMD Zen 2-based CPU clocked at 3.5 GHz, a custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU with 10.28 teraflops and 36 compute units clocked at 2.23 GHz, 16GB of RAM, and a custom 825GB SSD. The duo will also come with exciting next-gen features, including instantaneous load speeds, 8k graphical capabilities, and advanced 3D studio.

Sony also revealed that the PS5 would arrive with exclusive titles, including “Final Fantasy XVI” from Square Enix, a new “God of War” title, and a “Harry Potter” role-playing game. The newly announced titles will shore up the lineup of titles Sony announced in June, which included “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales” from the company’s in-house studio Insomniac Games.

As Sony aggressively bets on exclusives for its upcoming console, it will also offer subscribers access to a back catalogue of titles from the PS4. Microsoft, on the other hand, will reportedly focus on cheaper entry prices to attract more users into the Xbox ecosystem.

The Sony PlayStation 5 will hit the market on Nov. 12 in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea and on Nov. 19 in other parts of the world.