You Can Buy a Fully-Fledged PS5 for the Same Price as a Less Powerful Xbox Series S Right Now

@Megabeenz What marketing team? Didn't they get laid off recently?

I guess, at this point Microsoft doesn't care anymore where you play their games, as long as you buy their games.

@Megabeenz At this point, they're pretty much just trying to stop any additional bleeding from the hardware division, I imagine, and have totally given up on competing any traditional sense.

My only fear is what will be the price of a PS6 be, £550? 600? £700? Sony need to be smart on this and not be completely tone deft like what they did with the PS3.

@Oram77 PS3 was 20 years ago, those prices you mentioned are completely reasonable for consoles in this climate.

Not trying to defend corporations from charging higher prices, but you have to be realistic.

Unfortunately something most people these days (at least in PushSquare comment sections) aren't capable of.

@Jacko11 The PS3 was not reasonably priced, I think 9/10 of people would agree with that.

Edit: I never said any of those prices I listed were bad/good, for the record I think it will be priced between 550 - 650.

If you haven’t bought a current gen machine yet. Now is firmly the time.

You wait for next year and they won’t be this price.

@Shepherd_Tallon I think were just arrogent because of the sheer success the PS2 had and I thought they could "get away" charging those prices, I just hope they don't follow that trend with the PS6, that's all I'm saying nothing deeper then that.

Utterly ridiculous, and the price is one thing, but availability is another. Truthfully, I think Microsoft are doing this, and releasing a premium PCBox that will likely sell fewer than 10 million units, to deliberately scupper Xbox as a console.

I honestly think that Microsoft are seeing this as an opportunity to withdraw from the console market. Personally I'd rather they just ripped off the band aid and departed with a little more dignity. Just go third-party and be done with it. We all know they could be massively successful doing that, but instead they just seem to want to humiliate themselves...

I’m glad I started going digital at the end of PS3 era and full digital for PS4.
I paid £360 for my digital PS5 at launch and sold my PS4 for £160.
I think the black Friday deal for digital PS5 is an absolute steal for the tech you’re getting.
When you look back at what we paid for previous generations at launch these aren’t too bad prices.
Obviously there’s quite a few people that still like physical, but at least you can get a discount drive separate these days, which is a great idea.

Xbox dropped the ball with the Series S, I got the black 1TB version for £270 18 months ago, which I think is a good price.
Should have taken a hit on profits to keep the price down and sell units. Once you’re getting towards PS5 prices it really loses the appeal. I think they should have done the Series X digital cheaper too. No way I wanted to pay £450 for it as my first Xbox, when I paid £90 less for my PS5. Xbox only made the digital version £50 cheaper where as Sony made their digital £90 cheaper than disc.

@Oram77

My only fear is what will be the price of a PS6 be, £550? 600? £700? Sony need to be smart on this and not be completely tone deft like what they did with the PS3.

The issue with the PS3 was that Sony wanted to sell expensive blu-ray player to the people, kind of like Microsoft wanted to sell Kinect cameras to Xbox gamers. While Sony lost a lot of money selling expensive blu-ray drives in PS3s, it paid off in the long run when it comes to physical media for movies and games for the following 20 years.

But in case of the PS6, Sony can charge whatever price they want, as it seems like noone will compete with them in the high-end console sector. I expected the PS6 (the high-end home console) to be around £800+, as it will offer a better hardware than the PS5 Pro which, apart from seasonal discounts, still costs £700 and hardware component price seem to become more expensive in the future.

Do they still produce new Xbox’s or are they just clearing down stock? I’d imagine it’s a complete waste of time manufacturing new ones.

@Oram77 it's going to be expensive lol. They want money, and don't have competition anymore. Like I mentioned before... When Xbox sells their next console for$1000 or $1200, why should/would Sony stay at$500? We're not friends, we're the people they squeeze money out of.

People have shown they're willing to pay $700 for a console now. I wouldnt be shocked if that was the base PS6 MSRP at launch. Then remember, last time Xbox had scalpers too.

All those scalpers and bots are going to focus on PS only this next time. Sonya going to make a KILLING.

@TrollOfWar The Blu-ray side of things paid off big time, I forgot what MS version was called "HD" or something like that. I understand the Blu-ray player did add lot to the console price.

@Oram77 idk if anyone can knock Microsoft for that one. Toshiba made HD-DVD. Sony wasn't going to allow Blu-ray lasers in Xboxes. Microsoft was left with Toshiba as the only upgraded media option.

They truly shouldn't have bothered. The fans would have lost their mind though. Sony ended up making money of the licensing fees to.

*Edit: Not joking, DVD to Blu-ray mainly came down to the Lazer being blue instead of red lol.

A ton of science behind it but that's the jist.

@11001100110zero Maybe it's naive of me, but I just can't see (famous last words) Sony selling the PS6 any more then 650, either way I don't envy them as this is going to be their most important console launch.

Edit: Oh interesting I never knew that, so they basically got bullied out? You are right though, not sure why they bothered, butr then again hind sight is 20/20

@Oram77 I was one of those that held off on the PS3 until it dropped in price, though the main push to get one was when Sony had just announced that the 60GB PS2 compatible model was being discontinued so I bought one for £350. The following week, all the stockists had none left just the underwhelming 40GB unit.

Until the overrated Tub o' Lard, the PS3 was the most expensive Playstation I'd bought. The original PlayStation was about £230 (with some games), the PS2 was £300 (GT pack), the original 'shiny top' PS4 was £300 & the PS4 Pro was £300 (both PS4s were in Black Friday sales)

@Fiendish-Beaver

Personally I'd rather they just ripped off the band aid and departed with a little more dignity. Just go third-party and be done with it. We all know they could be massively successful doing that, but instead they just seem to want to humiliate themselves...

I agree that everyone would like more transparency regarding Microsoft's future gaming hardware strategy.

But I don't think it's that simple. Assuming Microsoft would "just ripped off the band aid" and announce the end of all Xbox hardware activities, what would really happen?

Players would panic and stop spending money on games and subscription services before they would get the chance to see what the next Xbox/PC hardware can do and if/how they can play their current game libraries on those next gen devices.

Developers would stop any development on Xbox versions of their games as they wouldn't see Xbox as a viable platform where the userbase is leaving.

Partners like AMD, Asus, Lenovo, MSI would question Microsoft's commitment to gaming, resulting in Microsoft having less influence and insights in future tech developments, which would negatively impact any DirectX development in Windows and Linux could gain a bigger share in PC gaming.

@Oram77 I get not seeing them do that. $500's been the starting price for close to 20 years o so.
Let's be honest. Think of, Steam, Nintendo, Sony, Xbox as car companies. Even grocery stores, whatever you want.

Ignore nintendo for this. If msft and steam announce new stores to visit, but the entrance fees expensive, you'll stick to the cheaper store.

Now though... If store A and B are charging $1000 to get inside, why would Store C only charge $500? They "Own you" with digital libraries, and years of being a premium device.

Now they can pick a price between $500- $1000 or more. Who's to say they are in the wrong?

I know if I was the only hamburger not charging $40 for a cheeseburger, id raise it to $30 a burger. I'd make more while still being the cheaper option.

@Jacko11

I‘m sure that without the competition by Xbox Series X and Game Pass, the inital price of the PS5 would have been 50 USD higher, and there wouldn’t have been a PS Plus Collection (which was gold for me, because I hadn’t had a PS4).

With the next Xbox likely being a PC with a high price compared to classical consoles, the PS6 pricing will be wild!

@Oram77 Bullied kinda lol. They had 1 option, that made a 1080p disc like Blu-ray, really had no choice. I think they were kinda screwed eithe way tbh. Not offer a better option to the fan base, or go with the only other option which was a much worse technology.

Picture was fine, but the disc could only hole like 60%? Of what a Blu-ray could. A lot of movies were multi disc due to that format. I think they saw the backlash over the red ring of death, and figured a least try something.

Up until now I was comfortable not upgrading my PS5 to the Pro, but considering the black Friday discounts going on atm, upgrading at this price point is beginning to look like a better deal considering the crazy price hikes that will be effecting all things with chips in the coming year. It's a now or never situation, as even Sony will be forced to raise their prices by Q3 next year IMO. Choices, choices...

@get2sammyb
"Xbox Series X, which is equivalent in power to a PS5"

That really should read "which is at least equivalent in power to a PS5"

Digital Foundry:
"the Xbox Series X is a considerably more powerful piece of hardware than PlayStation 5"

Pointing that out may rile the fanboys but be consoled that all that extra power doesn't seem to have helped it at all against the PS5.

I was fairly optimistic re the price of the PS6 based on various reports recently about its makeup.

If hardware prices don’t settle down again though then I think all hardware coming out from mid 2026 will see a fairly leap in price, including existing SKUs that will need to adjust to DRAM increases if nothing else.

For PS6 it might not be the end of the world as it’ll all be relative, but as a consumer it will hurt and for Sony it will make getting people to adopt the newest models harder potentially.

it’s pretty insane how these high prices for xboxes make the consumer feel like (at least me) that the console is really worth that money but in reality all the xboxes are complete ***** deals for the prices they are all offered at

people shouldn’t be dumb enough to buy any series console at all anymore especially now because it now costs more and you can get all xbox games on playstation too

gamepass isnt even that attractive anymore either xbox literally screws their loyal fanbase completely over with how they’re doing things now

guys please throw your series console if you have one in the bin and get a ps5 at least sony cares about good will to their customers

Im willing to pay 700 for a ps6; but truth be told i will end up paying more if costs more anyway

@ElectricWizard real world performance of games have shown all third party games run more or less the same on both series x and ps5
so that 5 more or so tflops the series x has does nothing for the performance of most games

PS5 digital is £280 in the UK. This is a great price with no profit margin when you consider 64GB RAM is now £300+. PC market is in shambles.

The series s was a good upgrade for me, got for $120 at costco. Better console to continue playing my 360 and Og games. As for current one, they may have a lot but mostly nothing xbox makes now has any appeal to use the time to play it even more so than just the moneh over playing something elss

@judgmentarrows
Yep, been proven many times. I acknowledged it hasn't helped against the PS5.

Was pointing out a fact to the article writer.

Considering an Xbox Series S used to occasionally be available for sub-£150 (at least the 512gb version) during Xmas and sale periods, the price being nearer £300 (and RRP having increased by 50% since release) seems like MS are done with the idea of consoles.

Even allowing for these trends reflecting UK pricing, there are offers for PS5 slim consoles below £300 in a lot of shops so I can't see anyone really buying Xboxes.

@Pequod - excellent point, and RAM pricing might make the console prices rise again too if they aren't stockpiled on inventory.

Microsoft lost the plot a long time ago.

@judgmentarrows

guys please throw your series console if you have one in the bin and get a ps5 at least sony cares about good will to their customers

Wouldn't it make more sense to sell or trade an Xbox series console rather than throwing it into the bin? Also those who already have one and enjoy it are not affected by the price hike. They continue playing as Xboxes basically play 90% of the same games as the PS5.

The Series X is genuinely a brilliant console, but I'm glad I sold mine 2 years ago after seeing where Xbox was heading.. Far too many silly decisions from them. From the silly and confusing naming convention, the fragmentation with weaker console, the unsustainable gamepass, the spending spree, the failing promises, confusing messaging and direction.. Astonishing how a trillion dollar company with all their paid expertise can get so many thing wrong.. Sad times for now, but we'll see how things turn out for them

Cheaper, more powerful and plays Xbox exclusives. It's a no brainier really, anyone looking to shift over to Playstation or new to gaming should be getting this whilst the offer is on.

@Oram77 @Jacko11
I think PS6 is going to be around the £650 - £700 mark, without a disc drive (but with an optional one available) - and I'm absolutely fine with that, providing it is capable enough. (I'm not convinced yet).

I've been saying it for a while, and I'm sure I will say it many more times before it launches, but if the PS6 isn't expensive/capable enough it is going to fail spectacularly.

If its not-too-expensive but underpowered, a lot of those people who want a cheaper PS6 will see little benefit so will stay with PS5 (and maybe dabble with Switch2), and some of those who want a bigger upgrade (and are prepared to pay for it) will start to look elsewhere.

Sony have a seriously difficult balancing act on their hands, and should not be jumping into this potential storm too early.

Of course, you also have some that expect a cheap, all powerful PS6 but thats fairly delusional.

@SplinterHell If it carries on it will but Sony are more shielded than Microsoft from it. They will have long term supply agreements for a fixed price due to the predictable sales pattern of the PS5 and they showed when the US tariffs were a problem that they will stockpile up to 4 months

@judgmentarrows I wouldn't go as far as to say that Sony cares much about the good will of their customers. They can be just as scummy as Microsoft.

@Fiendish-Beaver I imagine they will want to somehow frame it as "we are stopping because the people do not want it, it is you that stopped buying it, and we are struggling because of the evil competition dominating the market! It is not because we messed up over and over again and only throw money at problems and hope"

And they will probably want to lever this poor tale into being allowed to buy another massive publisher.

As for the other hot topic in this thread: Sony raising prices. They have learned their lesson (hopefully) Target the enthusiasts with high prices, that works, but they need to make sure the general public keep buying PlayStations to play GTA, Minecraft and Fortnite, CoD/Battlefield/Fifa/Madden to keep all that storefront cash rolling in. They will weigh up the cost/price based on these factors. They don't want to alienate kids and casual gamers who spend on digital coins.

@TrollOfWar what’s the point having one at this point it’s not like game pass is worth subscribing to anymore either

if i was a loyal xbox customer i would be so pissed at this entire situation i hope even the most hardcore loyal ones at this point turn away from xbox

microsoft is so damn awful with anything about xbox

@Oram77 "Sony need to be smart on this and not be completely tone deft like what they did with the PS3. The PS3 was not reasonably priced"

Looking back at 2006, PS3 was actually the cheapest bluray player at that time. It could cost you $1000 if you buy Samsung BD-P1000 and it could cost you $1800 if you want more high end player like Pioneer Elite BDP-HD 1.

So, if Sony didn't subsidized PS3 and followed a "reasonably priced" bluray player, PS3 would pass $1000 or even more considering og PS3 also has PS2 emotion engine for PS2 BC.

And it's a well known fact that Sony produced PS3 at a significant loss for a couple of years. If they sell it at more lower price like $299 at launch following people demands, Sony would probably bankrupt and the end of PS journey.

We don't know how expensives PS6 but my best guess it would be $500 and $600 for bigger storage.

@judgmentarrows You can buy and play games on an Xbox the same way you can on a PlayStation, and games are still being released for the consoles for the foreseeable future. GamePass is optional, it has always been optional.

It's the same point why people have a PlayStation: for entertainment.

Nintendo Switch 2 is also more powerful than Xbox Series S in docked mode

Xbox as a platform is dead. I wouldn't be surprised if some at MS want to kill the name completely and rebrand their upcoming PC-type thing as Microsoft Gaming or something like that.

I know we've seen the stories about the unachievable profit margin targets at Microsoft, but I truly believe they are trying to get out of the first-party console hardware market, and will likely attempt to disengage from Gamepass and run that down too.

I believe rather than saying they are pulling out and causing uproar amongst fans and those who have invested in the ecosystem and hardware, they are simply setting it up to fail and have people abandon it naturally.

When the numbers remaining are small enough, they will officially pull the plug.

They've decided they want out of hardware and to leave it to third party partners, and I believe they also want to become a regular publisher selling £70 games rather than subscription model on which they lose money.

I actually feel for my mates still persisting with supporting their brand at this point, the writings been on the wall since the PS4 left Xbox One for dead. Captain going down with their ship kind of sentiment, I half respect it.

@Boxmonkey I’ve read they’re pretty much producing them as needed for orders

@ElectricWizard please refrain from quoting facts to Sammy Barker. He's not a fan.

@Jacko11 @Oram77 agree 100% with Jacko. ps3 when launched was $499, took a few years then $299 when slim came out. ps5 was $399 digital $499 disc drive. That's not much of an increase when you compare the CPU and GPU with the ps3. Not to mention the SSD this gen. Gaming really isn't getting out of hand with prices TBH. Even if the ps6 is released at $599, in todays climate that is not pricey considering the tech that's going to be in that thing. Its really only $100 more then the ps3's debut and that was 2 decades ago. And on top, we buy these machines and they last 7yrs (consoles life cycle) there's not too many investments we can make in life for $599 that gets us a 7yr return in usage.

@Dogbreath I agree with you 100%. but what I can't seem to wrap my head around is, MS is a greedy anti consumer corporation, esp with Xbox. If they want to get out of this business, I don't see them hesitating in just ripping the bandaid off and saying "see ya!!!!, its been real, but we're out". They don't give a rats behind what their dedicated players that love their ecosystem think. If a corp. like that wants out, they get out.

As a matter of fact, they've been making themselves look like bigger fools the way they've been handling business, by changing their tune and prices on things every other week it seems this past year esp

The simple fact you could attach a disc drive makes this an infinitely superior choice.

@omadeli I jumped ship from the 360 to the ps4. It truly was a world above the Xbox one. With that being said though, Sony won, but Xbox did 80% percent of the work.

It like two fit, healthy guys fighting on the sidewalk. Toe to toe, then Xbox trips, falls in the path of a big bus. They then refuse to listen to any of the advise they received. Slowly they're injuries only got worse and more fatal. Never taking a moment to plan and heal, they just ignore th damage and kept swinging.

So yeah Sony WON, but all they did was let Xbox die and bleed out. Sony certainly bruised them, but Xbox finished themselves off.

It does make me chuckle though, in regards to the Kinect. Back then, it being bundled in annoyed us for the added cost, and the privacy concerns about a mandatory microphone in the house.

Now though? Pretty much everyone has Gemini, Alexa, Siri, Bixby. In some way, at home or in their pocket. You can turn it off, like you could have done with Xbox Kinect. The amount of people who trust the device at home or phone their pocket ISN'T actually listening is just crazy to think about.

@Oram77 "My only fear is what will be the price of a PS6 be, £550? 600? £700?"

You didn't specifically say whether you thought the prices were good or bad, but your sentence above literally suggests the latter.

PS3 was expensive for the time, but to compare the Sony of 20 years ago with today is misguided.

At this point you've got to be out of your mind to buy an Xbox over a PlayStation

@carlos82 Can't see why anyone would want to pay those new prices. The used market is still decent, especially for Series X.

@11001100110zero you're talking to a self-professed luddite, I try to have as little of that intrusive nonsense as possible. Kinect and trying to stop people using second hand copies are what shot themselves in the foot initially with gamepass putting the nail in the coffin imo. They tried to offset the cost of Activision and Bethesda by trying to become Netflix with gamepass and locking people down to a subscription model.

You're right saying most of their damage was self inflicted; when your exclusives only really consist of Halo, Forza and Gears vs what you get on PlayStation (or Nintendo to be fair) then people are only rightly going to switch allegiance unless they're die hard. I have no doubt PSN would still be free if Xbox didn't standardise a charge and in general they've brought about the most anti-consumer practices of the big 3.

Is anyone talking about Microsoft selling off Xbox?

I don’t think they’re gonna hit a 30% profit margin… This reminds of Google’s push for gaming.

@omadeli

Kinect and trying to stop people using second hand copies are what shot themselves in the foot initially...

The funny thing is, Sony has been fighting the sale of second hand games on multiple occasions (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and has been spying on users (link) before Microsoft attempted any of that. Luckily no one remembers any of that and Sony is a different, much more consumer-friendly company now. 😁

@TrollOfWar I love your receipts! Bill Gates is that you!? 👀

Personally, I've had distaste towards Xbox ever since most of my mates defected after the PS2 and got a 360 instead of PS3 (leaving me on my jack jones for the first few slow years). Microsoft are the richest out of the 3 yet are the most money-grubbing of the 3, make it make sense.

@omadeli

Personally, I've had distaste towards Xbox ever since most of my mates defected after the PS2 and got a 360 instead of PS3 (leaving me on my jack jones for the first few slow years).

Sorry for your loss, must have been a tough time for you. Your hatred towards Xbox is justified for taking away your friends, I hope you feel better now.

@TrollOfWar MGS4 got me through it

@omadeli Excellent game 👍

@get2sammyb glazing and dunking at the same time me likes this article 😉💪

@omadeli The Kinnect idea was good on paper, I will say sometimes they can truly see things on the horizon. Still, no one I knew wnted it forced on them.

The No/ Yes on used games was a massive swing and a miss. I will acknowledge that it sort of leaned into the "Support the devs" type talk. They were making that a feature, but it was actally up to each dev/ publisher if they wanted to opt in. I read they could either say no thanks, all the time, or only some titles use it. Ether way 2013, was still a long ways away from the digital only end point we're headed to.

The exclusives were also a weird let down. In truth (ignoring the pc porting dicision), they did have a good amount. They just weren't very good lol. Whoever was signing the checks for content, had a terrible eye for them.

Ryse, Ori, Dead Rising 3, Forza Motorsport 5, Titanfall, killer instinct, and sunset Overdrive were all great. The rest ? Total crap.

I gave a bunch of them honest attempts. Big one I remember was Recore. The game had 10 minute stretches that could be great fun, then bland for an hour.

As the Console began to fall behind, they just stopped caring. They had great ones at the start, but the majority were just garbage. First year I was on PS4, I really wondered if I jumped ship in error. Ultimately saw I made the right choice.

The Xbox One launch screwed my gaming group up as well. 2 to PS4, 2 stayed on Xbox, one didn't like either option lol, and 3 built PCs.

I mean sure, but at the same time I don't care. I don't want a PS5 still even after many discounts at JB HIfi. I still don't care about power, or price if the product is still not appealing to me, the games aren't, the peripherals aren't, the console isn't.

@judgmentarrows developers tend to optimize their games on the console with the biggest market share.

My opinion is that it's late in the ps5 console life cycle and it's hard to point to many exclusive ps5 must play titles. Sure the ps5 has a big library of games but most of the titles are either available on the ps4 or other consoles.

So, in this case Microsoft (Elphaba) is giving away their 1st party games (Grimmerie book) to Sony (Glinda) so Sony will get more games on PS5 (Glinda will able to use Grimmerie book), then Microsoft will faking their death by going 3rd party (Elphaba melted). Then Fiyero as Scarecrow (ROG ALLY) meet together with Elphaba (Microsoft) and we have ROG XBOX ALLY (Son of Witch) and Microsoft will going 3rd party forever with ROG ALLY.

This situation is literally like WICKED FOR GOOD storyline.

PS4 and Xbox one held the generation back during the first four years not the series s. Series s is an excuse since PS is significantly more popular this generation. Nothing more.