September 9th will be the 25th Anniversary of PlayStation; Rumored full PS5 blowout date.

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mutantsushi said:
People are focusing on the full disc drive version, but I don't see Sony focusing on subsidising that directly, Sony shouldn't worry if it's same price as XSX. (too much talk here seems premised on MS plausibly threatening Sony's market position, no doubt due to stronger percepition of Xbox in US/English market) Much better to subsidize the discless version, since that will be most effective targetting people sensitive to price, AND be paid back in online sales.

But probably just as / or more important than that will be if they offer equivalent to MS' installment plan including online subscription, of course Sony's plans for their subscription offering(s) will be key part of that, but that could well be important marketing element for Sony. I believe development of that ecosystem is key to cooperation wiith their new partner Epic, so expect a focus on growing that aspect of the business.

If Sony's discless model is success which I believe it will, my question is will MS follow with similarly discounted discless XSX, and how soon? It would be easy to just ship XSX without disc drive installed, the power supply would then be slightly over-spec, but zero overhead costs.

Also curious if Sony helps back any indies that really show off the advanced triggers etc, a break out hit there would really show off platform. EDIT: The cooperation with Epic makes me wonder if that might be way to extend relevance of their controls and (upcoming) PSVR2 by having Epic standardize on those on PC or even somehow pushing it for Epic Store games. Seems like win/win (Epic differentiating it's offer by pushing most advanced mass market controllers) and basis for deepening cooperation. I read stuff about how Xbox is most common console controller on PC, but a more advanced, immersive controller seems easily marketable to PC gamers, just needs the game support for unique capabiities.

For that matter, I wonder if Sony would even consider licencing out their custom SSD controller hardware/software to PC market OEMs, give it brand name that games can use to publicize their advanced I/O capabilities, have basic performance requirements for compatible SSDs etc. Not really about gaining licencing money, but promoting unique capabilities that more crossplatform games can target in way that fully leverages PS5 hardware platform as well. Actually it need not be about directly licenced hardware, but "open standard" that anybody could produce for (yet is compatible with Sony's own solution, thus increasing market relevance for attracting 3rd party devs to optimize for it and make it "standard expectation/desire") while entrenching Playstation's relevance in relation to broader game market. Hmm... "Play I/O" seems catchy and Sony centric (while not in your face about it).

On an off topic note, it's a bit sad that we got to an age where installments to get a console is a reality. I dreamed with a future where consoles would get cheaper every generation to the point that they would be like printers. I wish generations were longer so that new consoles could get cheaper technology before coming out.

Although.... MS installments, in a sense, isn't really instalments, according to them. They're putting it more like a free console with subscription, so it'd be like a console as a service. But still, I would rather get to an age where consoles would be $250 tops, a price where any parent could pick one in heartbeat.