PlayStation 5
Sony
Sony on Wednesday announced that the PlayStation 5 will start at $399.99 and goes on sale Nov. 12 in the U.S. The Sony PS5 will compete directly with Microsoft‘s Xbox Series X and Series S game consoles.
The PS5 Digital Edition, which does not have a disc drive, will cost $399.99. The “regular” version of the console will cost $499.99.
Microsoft announced earlier this month that the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will go on sale Nov. 10 for $499 and $299, respectively. The Microsoft Series X is slightly more powerful than the Series S and includes a disc drive for installing games while the Xbox Series S is smaller and will need to download games from the internet. Microsoft’s system comes with an eight-core AMD Zen 2 processor — like the PS5 — but will have a better graphics card than Sony’s rival machine.
Sony is taking a similar strategy to Microsoft. It will release both a regular PS5 with a disc drive and a PS5 Digital Edition that can only download and stream games.
Microsoft will offer a financing plan that allows customers to pay for either console over 24 months.The Xbox Series S costs $24.99 per month on that plan while the Xbox Series X will cost $34.99 per month. The plan includes access to a library of games users can download and play.
Sony said the PS5 will launch in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea on Nov. 12 and the “rest of the world” on Nov. 19. Sony said the “launch date for China is still under exploration and will be announced at a later date.”
— CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.
