How Much Does A Playstation Five Cost

PS5 price is not really $499 — this is the true cost

(Image credit: Sony)

Sony'south PS5 might divide opinion on its looks, just there's no question it'due south one seriously impressive gaming machine. For $499 (£449 in the U.K.) you can get a 4K console that you'd need to spend well over $1,500 if yous wanted to buy 1 of the best gaming PCs or build an equivalent yourself.

And so at that place's the $399 (£359) PS5 Digital Edition, which offers the aforementioned ability as the standard console simply it drops the Blu-ray drive. And with speedy a PCIe 4.0 SSD, both machines are packed with proper next-generation tech for less than $500. Sounds like a bargain, right? Well not quite.

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Fifty-fifty if you lot can observe where to buy a PS5, $399 is the blank minimum you'll pay for the console, equally there's a lot more you'll need to spend on it to become the most out of the PS5. So here's what we consider to be the true cost of the PS5.

SSD upgrade: $200/£200 estimated

PS5 vs Xbox Series X: Which console wins? — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

While the PS5 has an 825GB SSD, simply 667.2GB of it is really available for you to use, with the operating system and other software needed for the console's performance taking upward a large clamper of the SSD'southward capacity. That would be fine if mod games didn't weigh in at around 50GB, and sometimes a lot more. So if you want to accept an extensive library of games on your PS5 you'll need to exist prepared to upgrade the storage.

As it stands, there are no Sony certified PICe iv.0 SSDs bachelor yet. But given the Xbox Series X's proprietary 1TB PCIe four.0 external SSD expansion card costs $219/£219, we can't imagine an SSD upgrade for the PS5 is going to exist inexpensive. We'd expect you'll demand to pay out another $200/£200 to get a 1TB SSD to boost the console's internal storage.

Pulse 3D Wireless headset: $99/£89

Sony PS5 Pulse 3D wireless headset — (Image credit: Sony)

The PS5 comes with Sony's custom Tempest 3D AudioTech, which delivers rich 360-caste audio through smart processing in order to deliver a amend audible experience for PS5 games. While the tech will supposedly work with some existing TVs, to get the full experience here and now, yous need the PS5 Pulse 3D Wireless headset.

At $99/£89 it's surprisingly affordable for a gaming headset that needs to be used with proprietary tech. But that still ways you're adding another chunk of change to the overall cost of the PS5.

Spare DualSense controller: $69/£59

Sony PS5 Dualsense Controller — (Image credit: Sony via thegameawards YouTube)

Sony'due south DualSense controller is a rather special peripheral given its avant-garde haptics that can — when implemented well — deliver a more tactile and immersive gaming experience. (Our ain Marshall Honorof thought the DualSense was a gimmick until he played Demon's Souls). But you but get one DualSense controller in the PS5's box. While the controller is hands recharged via USB-C, it simply lasts some 4 to six hours.

And then you lot might want to accept a spare controller handy for when your master one runs out of electrical juice mid-gaming session. Or if you have friends around and want to play some split-screen multiplayer when the coronavirus pandemic subsides. To do that yous need to fork out an extra $69/£59, which isn't an unreasonable toll for a pretty advanced controller. Only a 2nd DualSense means the cost of owning a PS5 creeps up withal again.

PlayStation Plus: $59/£49 per year

If you want to get access to multiplayer games and the online elements of titles like Demon's Souls, likewise as deject saves, so you demand a PlayStation Plus subscription.

The most affordable fashion to do that is to pay for a yearly subscription, which volition set you lot back $59/£49 per annum. It might seem a little stingy, given Microsoft offers free Xbox cloud saves, and PC gamers have long enjoyed subscription-free access to multiplayer gaming platforms too as deject salvage and sync systems. But that's just the situation with Sony and its PlayStation consoles, similar information technology or not.

PS5 exclusive games: $118/£118

Demon's Souls review: The best reason to own a PS5 — (Epitome credit: Sony)

The PS5 is ushering in a generation of games that will toll up to $lxx/£70 a game, which means you're going to take to get used to spending a good amount more than on games if you desire to get them as soon equally they come out. Let's say you've just got a PS5, then your chief choice of exclusives are Spider-Human being: Miles Morales and Demon's Souls, costing $49/£49 and $69/£69 respectively on the PlayStation Store.

As getting one game for the PS5 doesn't actually make sense, we're going to presume y'all'll want both to get yourself started on Sony's new panel. That means you'll need to role with $118/£118, which is a pretty hefty corporeality for two games, one of which is basically an expansion pack to a 2018 game — besides as a beingness bachelor on the PS4 — and the other is a remake, albeit a grimly beautiful i, of a 2009 game. Fancy a tertiary-political party game, with next-gen graphics? Then y'all could opt for Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which will still set you back $59/£59, though the game has been discounted for the holiday season. While you tin can wait for game sales, getting a suite of PS5 games to get started with isn't going to be cheap.

The true price of the PS5: $1,044/£964 for the standard PS5; $944/£874 for the PS5 Digital Edition

When all the peripherals, games, and near-essential extras are taken into business relationship you lot'll exist looking at parting with at least $944/£874 for the PS5 Digital Edition, and up to $1,044/£964 for the standard PS5. That's quite a large amount of money for a gaming car that'south locked into a single ecosystem.

For that corporeality of coin, y'all can build a decent gaming PC, though you'll need to shop around. And PC games are considerably cheaper, with PC gaming offering an enormous amount to play from cutting-border titles to obscure indie creations to games from decades ago.

But if you want to game at 4K, or at least at dynamic resolutions that calibration up to 4K, you'll demand to spend a fair bit more on a gaming PC. So despite our calculations, the PS5 is yet surprisingly good value.

Of course, getting a PS5 right now is extremely hard equally the console has been selling out across the earth. Only wait until 2021 when the demand has evened out a bit and you could land yourself a bargain bundle, every bit well as have a larger selection of games to choose from; we believe 2021 is going to be the year of the PS5.

Roland Moore-Colyer a Managing Editor at Tom'due south Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he's also got an involvement in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, often with a look of marvel on his face.