Playstation Five Digital Edition Review
From supply chain issues to bots buying hundreds of consoles, for two years, the Sony Playstation Five has been nearly impossible to get without giving obscene amounts of money to resellers. Early in 2021, shortly after release, the console was almost entirely sold online. While this may have seemed like it would make it more easily obtainable, the effect was the opposite, allowing people with bots to skip through wait times and purchase all of the consoles before real customers could purchase one. One may wonder why people would want more than one console, and the answer is simple. Money.
Due to the lack of supply and the through-the-roof demand, people were able to resell PS5 Digital Edition consoles (the one without a disc slot), purchased at $400, for over $800. While PS5 Disc Edition consoles, which sold at a retail price of $500, were re-selling for over $900 dollars in early 2021. Now, two years and one month after the release, the digital edition console is still re-selling at $550, and the disc edition is selling at $600.
In February of 2021, I was lucky enough to get in the front of a Sony direct queue. This allowed me to purchase a PS5 Digital Edition console for the retail price of $400. When it was delivered, I seriously considered re-selling it for double what I bought it for, but since it was a birthday gift from all of my grandparents, I decided to keep it and use it.
The decision to keep the console was a great one. The console is virtually flawless. The biggest general perk with the PS5 is the lack of waiting and load time. Everything happens almost instantly, and I rarely ever find myself waiting for games to load in, while on the PS4, games would load very slowly and it would lag as well. While this is probably the most important benefit of the console, there are other perks as well, such as the beautiful graphics. The colors and graphics on all of the games I’ve played have been stunning, and at times difficult to discern the difference from reality. The third and final benefit I’ve noticed with the console is the simplicity of the menu. Everything is easy to navigate, which makes it much more enjoyable and easier to find and play games. Another benefit, one that I personally haven’t yet taken advantage of, is the PS5 exclusive games, such as Gran Turismo 7 and Spiderman Remastered. While there have been many good things about the PS5, I have had two issues as well that should not be overlooked.
However, in my two years of owning the console, I’ve encountered two major issues. The first problem I have had with the console is controller stick drift. For those who do not know what that is, stick drift is when the console “thinks” that you are moving one of the joysticks, even when you are not. This causes problems in almost all games, since it is registering an input that is not intended. After about a year and a half, I started to get bad stick drift in my only controller, and after weeks of trying to fix it, I had to succumb and purchase a new one.
The second issue I had was a less common one. One evening when I turned on the console, nothing worked, and even when I tried to turn it off, it said “please wait,” and after an hour, nothing happened. So, I tried various things to fix it, but eventually I ended up having to reset the console to factory settings, which later made me have to redownload all of my games, log back into everything, and all my captures were gone. This was frustrating to me, and I still don’t know what caused it.
Overall, the problems I have had with the PS5 have been frustrating, but they have been outweighed by the benefits. I would definitely recommend the console to anyone who wants a fun, simple, and fast gaming experience.
By Ellis Balser