There is zero reason to buy a PS5 console without a major price cut

A reader lists all the reasons why PS5 console sales are in decline and suggests the lack of price cuts is the most important.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned this year about gaming, it’s that the people in charge of the games industry appear to be idiots. I’ve always suspected it but now it seems to have been proven, given everything that’s happened. Or perhaps I’m not thinking cynically enough and what they’re doing is perfectly sensible from their point of view, because they have no interest in the long-term health of the industry, only their short term profits.

I’m not sure which is worse but what I do know is why sales for the PlayStation 5 are down so sharply, this early in the generation. I would’ve thought it was obvious but given how weirdly PlayStation and Xbox are acting at the moment I don’t honestly know if they realise.

Yes, a lack of exclusive games is an issue, along with various other related Issues I’ll get into in a minute, but the main one is simply that the PlayStation 5 is yet to have a proper price cut, despite being in its fourth year now. I think maybe company execs, with seven figure salaries, don’t realise this but people are hurting for money right now and there is next to no reason to be getting a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X right now, unless you’re a hardcore fan.

The cost of living crisis is still going on and buying hyper expensive consoles is not on most people’s agendas. There have been some temporary price cuts for the PlayStation 5, especially when the new model came out, but nothing that’s lasted more than a week or so. That’s what people are waiting for more than anything and I don’t know why Sony is acting surprised that things are going downhill.

There are other problems though, the lack of PlayStation 5-only exclusives being the obvious one. There just aren’t nearly enough and even the ones that do exist, they don’t really look much better than anything on the PlayStation 4. There’s never been that one game, that tells you ‘This is the next gen!’ and it’s beginning to seem like there never will be.

This problem is only made worse because games are turning up sooner and sooner on PC. That just creates another reason not to buy a PlayStation 5. Your money conscious PlayStation 4 owner will think that even when it does come time to upgrade wouldn’t a PC be a better investment? You might have to wait a bit longer for Sony exclusives, but maybe not even that given how well Helldivers 2 did from day one.

Also, and I don’t think is something that’s considered as much as it should be, but I don’t know if one or two good exclusives is even going to make the difference for many people nowadays. If many people are just playing the same two or three games all the time – Fortnite, Minecraft, GTA Online or whatever – how does a PlayStation 5 help that?

People use these games like social media, as somewhere to meet friends and chat, so why would playing some single-player only game that lasts 12 hours or so convince them to spend a ton of money on a new console? A couple of days later and they’d only end up playing exactly the same games again, none of which are drastically improved by being on PlayStation 5.

GTA 6 may make a difference though and if it does Sony should be very thankful to Rockstar, because nothing they’ve done is making a difference at all. Console loyalty has never been a thing, but that doesn’t just mean people are happy to switch brands, it also means they’re not going to buy a new console unless they’re given a very good reason to.

By reader Loanstarr