Michael Pachter Thinks Sony Won’t Sell Many PS5 Digital Edition’s
Industry analyst Michael Pachter was recently interviewed and he thinks that Sony blew it with the PS5 Digital Edition. Pachter doesn’t think that simply removing a disc drive to save consumers money doesn’t make the downgrade worth it, suggesting that the Xbox Series S is the better of the two cheaper next-gen consoles. Pachter thinks in the long run that less Digital Editions will be made because fewer editions will sell. The PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition both release on November 12th, while the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S release on November 10th.
When discussing the PS5 Digital Edition, Michael Pachter claimed, “I think Sony really blew it with that, because as far as we can tell, the cost of making a PlayStation 5 is $450, so they are breaking even on the $500 version, but losing $40 or so on the digital version. A disc drive isn’t worth that much. So they’re losing $40, but they gain $6 more per digital game than they would gain otherwise. So you would have to buy a lot of games to cover up the loss, and I just think it’s unlikely many will buy that many games.”
“I actually don’t think many consumers will want to save the money, I think most would rather have the disc drive on hand so they have the option to take their game to their friend’s house or trade it in or whatever,” Continued Michael Pachter. “So I think they blew it with the Digital Edition, but it’s hard to tell early numbers, because it’s all sold out anyway, and we don’t know how many of each they made. But I think over the long run, they’ll sell and make fewer digital editions.”
Do you think Michael Pachter is right about PS5 Digital Edition sales or do you think it will be successful due to the slimmer design? Let us know in the comments below!