Ot: PS5. Is it worth it?

[Maroonbulldog]

So my son has had a PS4 for a number of years and is wanting a PS5.

I see them out of stock around $500 here and there except a few places like WAlmart for $900+

I don’t understand the difference between them- Are they worth spending that much $$ on?


I’ve hear there is not a ton of difference between the 2 and wanted to ask folks who may actually know.




Added: he is 13 and has $$ saved for it but I don’t want him to waste it.

Thoughts??

 

[Nissandawg]

There are not many games out right now that would be worth paying above the $500 retail for one. Not to mention it’s really really hard getting one right now. Literally seconds after they get stocked at various retailers online they are gone. You have to basically know before they become available where to find them. There are a few ppl on Twitter you can follow to try and get a heads up. @mattswider is a good one. In saying all that they are definitely a big upgrade from the ps4 and I would highly recommend getting one but not at double the price. Hopefully the chip shortage will die down by Christmas and they can increase inventory.

 

[ronpolk]

My most recent console is a PS2, so it’s probably not worth it to me and may not be worth it to you. But if he’s saved up money for it and it’s important to him, I’d let him buy it. Obviously within reason. Don’t pay double retail for it.

I’d imagine you could sell the PS4 and get some money out of it.

 

[PBRME]

Load times are night and day difference. Graphics are a huge difference if you have the right tv.

 

[MissStFan87]

Yeah you and/or your son will need to be on high alert for Twitter notifications if you hope to snag one. It took me about a month of trying before I got lucky spamming refresh on BestBuy's site during a restock a couple of weeks ago. Y'all could also give Sony Direct a try. It's completely random on who is allowed into the online store, but you don't have to wait around any longer than a few minutes to see if you make it in before the PS5s are bought up, and you don't have to race against bots.

As far as the PS5 itself, it's a nice upgrade on speed, having a SSD. Load times in games are shorter, and once I adjusted to the interface I've really grown to like it. But like Nissan said, the game lineup isn't exactly well stocked at the moment. I'm still playing my usual PS4 games, none of which have received next gen upgrades on PS5. That should change within the next year or two though, I think Sony's various studios have about 25 games in development. Hopefully by then it'll be much easier to actually find a PS5.

In short: unless he has a couple of PS5 games he's really wanting to play, he's probably fine waiting it out. That being said, who knows when the shortage will end so it's not a bad idea to get the ball rolling now, in case you go through several failed attempts at snagging one.

 

[Xenomorph]

Oculus Quest 2… got one for Father’s Day. It’s insane. Absolute life of the party.

 

[MissStFan87]

I had heard from a few people about how nice playing on an actual gaming monitor was, so I made the switch to one for PS5. I absolutely love it. Even games that are several years old look so much better on this thing. Plus it was a lot cheaper than looking for a 120hz TV.

 

[tired]

The Quest 2 is what I've been eyeballing. The real deal huh?

 

[Dawghouse]

We love ours. Freaking unreal and we don't have many games.

 

[HamSammich]

I got the Quest 2 as well for Father’s Day and holy cow is it amazing.

 

[Seinfeld]

If you can find one for retail price, I’d get it while you can. The PS5 will be Sony’s flagship for likely the next 7-8 years, and when accessibility eventually is no longer a problem, you’re going to start seeing more games that are PS5 only. Developers have said over and over how it’s a pain in butt to port games to entirely different sets of hardware.

For $900, though? I’d pass. I’m no expert on the specifics of the microchip shortage by any means, but I’ve spent 17 years in electronics and hydraulics global supply chain, and we’re expecting the vast majority of our major constraints to die down by early 2022. Until then, those same game developers that don’t necessarily want to put games on both platforms will mostly continue to make PS4 versions of new games because there’s really little choice.

 

[GloryDawg]

My son's friend mom who has a lot of money due to the death of her husband bought two for her son. Why I don't know. Her son wanted to sell one to my son for 600.00 back in December. I refused to pay more than what the regular retail price would be. A few weeks went by and I got it for 350.00. My son also had a PS4 and a Xbox One X. He just sold those to Games X changed for 320.00. He might have gotten beat on that deal. Not sure.

 

[msstate7]

I haven't bought a console in years, so is it a shortage every release of a new one? Seems Sony would have a ton of them ready at release, or do they want it be hard to get them to build up hype?

 

[Xenomorph]

Man.. at a party or even just a family get together the OQ2 is a riot. Everybody thinks they’ll step off that elevator and walk the plank with no problem until they put the headset on….

 

[dickiedawg]

It’s always hard to get your hands on one at first. Usually by this point in the cycle though it’s more available than this though.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Because of covid it kinda changed the distribution and tack on some production bottlenecks and you have a shortage because new PS5s trickle out in small waves. They’ve been selling them online only instead of store orders so naturally the bots people set up to buy them all up in about 10 seconds just makes the problem worse.

 

[PineGroveBully]

I’m probably the wrong person to ask as I’m still playing 007 on N64.

 

[SirBarksalot]

I got the Quest 2 as well for Father’s Day and holy cow is it amazing.

Was talking to an Oculus 2 owner this weekend. Said it’s cool, but after a few weeks the novelty wears off. You agree?

 

[HamSammich]

Was talking to an Oculus 2 owner this weekend. Said it’s cool, but after a few weeks the novelty wears off. You agree?

no, I don’t agree. If you only play one game, then sure it does. But watching movie trailers as well as Oculus themed shows and mini movies are unreal and something you just can’t get from a PS5.

however that being said, I did read where Sony is currently developing a VR system for the PS5.

My brother in law has the VR for his PS4 but after playing my Oculus he admitted the Oculus was a better system.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Buy him a Zebco 33 instead

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Maybe he already has one. You know you can do both.

 

[oxfordrebel22]

I got lucky and had a friend who works at a retailer call when they got a surprise shipment in. So I’ve had one for a while and I’ve really enjoyed it. The other posters are right about the lack of games, at the moment, though. I mostly play sports games and they’re pretty incredible. And I played the new Spider-Man game just to check out the graphics and it was insanely good.

I think if you keep your eye out for a PS5 at market price, you’ll find one. I wouldn’t pay $900 for it unless he just can’t wait (I get it, I was that way wanting a PS3 as a kid)

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

The best thing to do to try and get one is follow the Playstation 5 restock accounts on twitter and turn on notifications for their tweets. They’ll give you a heads up before a restock.

 

[JacksonDevilDog]

I have one. Don't get caught up in the 120hz stuff about your TV. But you need to make sure you have a 4K tv to use with the PS5. I got lucky and got one at BestBuy.com around Christmas. The chip shortages around the world are making it difficult to acquire one.

 

[djt159]

I haven't bought a console in years, so is it a shortage every release of a new one? Seems Sony would have a ton of them ready at release, or do they want it be hard to get them to build up hype?

Chip shortage due to workforce shortage in manufacturing plants and everything being shut down due to the Rona. Think similar to what Lumber is causing to happen to the housing market.

 

[oxfordrebel22]

I have one. Don't get caught up in the 120hz stuff about your TV. But you need to make sure you have a 4K tv to use with the PS5. I got lucky and got one at BestBuy.com around Christmas. The chip shortages around the world are making it difficult to acquire one.

The PS5’s come with some special HDMI cable, right? But my (limited) understanding is the TV’s that will support it are uncommon, therefore expensive. I just plugged my HDMI straight into my TV. Which is 4K, but that’s all I know about. The graphics are better, but certainly not as big a jump as from 2 to 3 or 3 to 4. Diminishing returns, I suppose..

But, I do probably need to look into better setups. That’s just not really my thing, and I’ve never thought much on it. If you have any tips, I’d appreciate them.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

PS5 is built with the peak graphics possible today. There are TVs and monitors that can handle it but as you said they’re expensive and not plentiful. It won’t take long for TV technology to catch up and be affordable.

 

[Go Budaw]

Yeah you and/or your son will need to be on high alert for Twitter notifications if you hope to snag one. It took me about a month of trying before I got lucky spamming refresh on BestBuy's site during a restock a couple of weeks ago. Y'all could also give Sony Direct a try. It's completely random on who is allowed into the online store, but you don't have to wait around any longer than a few minutes to see if you make it in before the PS5s are bought up, and you don't have to race against bots.

As far as the PS5 itself, it's a nice upgrade on speed, having a SSD. Load times in games are shorter, and once I adjusted to the interface I've really grown to like it. But like Nissan said, the game lineup isn't exactly well stocked at the moment. I'm still playing my usual PS4 games, none of which have received next gen upgrades on PS5. That should change within the next year or two though, I think Sony's various studios have about 25 games in development. Hopefully by then it'll be much easier to actually find a PS5.

In short: unless he has a couple of PS5 games he's really wanting to play, he's probably fine waiting it out. That being said, who knows when the shortage will end so it's not a bad idea to get the ball rolling now, in case you go through several failed attempts at snagging one.

Adding to the above on the twitter notifications, @Wario64 is the twitter follow if you want to get a beat on the inventory drops. Follow him and set your notifications to ping your phone whenever he tweets anything. Most if it will be deals on games, but you’ll get the info faster than any other way on the console drops as well.

You’d be well served to get accounts ahead of time with auto log-in for Wal Mart, Best Buy, Amazon, Sony’s website, Costco, and Target, that way you can speed through the check out process before inventory is out.

 

[MissStFan87]

The PS5 comes with an HDMI 2.1 cable, which is capable of pretty much everything: 4K, 120 FPS, etc.

What you want out of your setup largely depends on what kind of games you play. I mostly stick to multiplayer titles, so I wanted to be able to achieve the highest frame rate possible. I picked up an LG 144hz monitor that has HDMI 2.0 ports, which allows the PS5 to output at 120 FPS, in games that feature it. If you're more of a single player person and want the best visuals possible, go with 4K. If you want BOTH 120hz and 4K, be prepared to shell out damn near $1,000. For now, at least.

That being said, I only have one game (Rouge Company) at the moment that received an update for PS5, enabling 120 FPS. I played a couple of rounds and really couldn't see much of a difference between 60 and 120. 30 to 60 seemed like a way more noticeable leap when I played my first PS4 games.