Jim Ryan, the president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said that it’d have been a problem for them to have a PlayStation 5 model similarly downsized to the Xbox Series S.

We need to clarify this: yes, there are two PlayStation 5 versions, but the main difference between the two (aside from the minuscule size and weight differences) is the fact that the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition has no Ultra HD Blu-ray drive while the PlayStation 5 Standard Edition has one. The CPU and the GPU, and the memory are the same in the two models, meaning there is no performance difference either.

Ryan was interviewed by a Japanese publication, AV Watch, and it was translated by VGC. „One thing that can be said is that if you look at the history of the game business, creating a special low priced, reduced spec console is something that has not had great results in the past. We’ve considered that option and seen other executives who have attempted this discover how problematic it is.

Based on our research, it’s clear that people who buy a game console want to continue using it for four, five, six or even seven years. They want to believe they have bought something that is future-proofed and not going to be outdated in two-to-three years. They want to have faith that if they end up buying a new TV that their current console will be able to support that new 4K TV they are considering on buying,” Ryan said.

He has a point: for example, the Nintendo Switch outsells the Nintendo Switch Lite. Perhaps this is why more PlayStation 5 Standard Edition units will be available at launch, according to Benji Sales, an independent video game analyst: „As more and more data comes out of retailers, it’s certainly looking like the vast bulk of PlayStation 5 consoles shipped this Holiday will be the disc-based, not digital. [It] could be [that] Sony is currently eating a pretty hefty loss at 399 dollars and will prioritize 499-dollar units for now. My guess is we will see a lot more digital consoles on the market eventually – I doubt this is a long term thing. Those wanting a digital-only PlayStation 5 it might be much more difficult to get ahold of than the disc [version] over the next several months,” he wrote on Twitter.

The PlayStation 5 Standard Edition and the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition will launch on November 12 in the US and November 19 elsewhere, respectively.

Source: WCCFTech, WCCFTech

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