PS5: model with player or Digital Edition?

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The advantages of the player Download and backwards compatibility Digital is less expensive The speed of digital In November Sony will embrace the ninth generation of consoles, launching two PS5 models on the market. This has never happened in Playstation history and although there have always been cosmetic revisions of consoles after launch, we will see a much more substantial difference this year. By now you should know, but for those who missed the developments of recent months, Sony is producing a Playstation 5 with Blu-Ray player and another model completely oriented to digital software distribution. The Digital Edition will clearly have a lower cost, in particular, Sony has decided to offer it to one hundred euros less than the "complete" version. 399 euros against 499 euros. When pre-orders began, many users therefore found themselves in difficulty in choosing the ideal model for their needs. There are those who preferred to save a hundred euros to buy one or more launch games, while others opted for the version with the player so as to be able to insert their large library of PS4, PS5 or movies in Blue. -Ray. In short, there is no cheaper model than the other, but today we want to try to give you some food for thought on which Playstation 5 to buy.

The advantages of the player

Having the "full option" version of a console is certainly a wise choice. In this way you do not deprive yourself of the advantages offered by the Blu-Ray player, however you can decide to ignore them completely to buy video games exclusively in digital. Of course, spending € 499 rather than € 399 is still an important difference, but it could easily be recovered in the months following the purchase. We are in 2020 in an era now completely oriented towards the digital world, but fortunately, there are still advantages for those who buy physical products. For example, a video game purchased on disc can be easily resold, both in specialized shops and to some private individuals. Similarly, by agreeing with some friend or acquaintance, you could buy a video game in two or more people, dividing the expense and passing the disc to you once the experience is complete. In fact, many, after finishing the main story of a title, abandon the video game on the shelf to gather dust, so reselling or exchanging can be a valid option to recover the money invested.

Being able to sell the video games we are no longer interested in playing, or to receive some titles directly from our friend is always a considerable advantage of the physical market. This in fact is not possible with digital software and therefore could represent a major limitation for certain users. So saving one hundred euros to buy the Playstation 5 version without a player could soon turn into a disadvantage, due to the impossibility of selling or borrowing video games.

Download and backwards compatibility

A another simple but absolutely not trivial advantage of the model with the reader immediately emerges for those who do not have a good internet connection. Having to download hundreds of gigabytes for a video game could be quite inconvenient for a user with an old ADSL. Especially in Italy, where the landline offered in most smaller countries does not exceed thirty megs (or even much less), having physical support could help you a lot. In fact, just insert the new one hundred gigabyte Blu-Ray into your console to quickly copy all the data needed to play.

Sony has confirmed the presence of backward compatibility on Playstation 5 with games from his former consul. This means that, by inserting the disc of a Playstation 4 title into the new generation console, we can start it without any problem. For those who have a huge library of physical Playstation 4 titles, which they would not want to abandon at all, the player on the Playstation 5 is almost an obligation to further simplify the generational transition, without completely disconnecting from the previous library as it happened in the past.

Digital is less expensive

So is there a real advantage in buying the Playstation 5 without a Blu-Ray player, besides being able to save a hundred euros? Thinking about it a bit, there are actually several considerations to make, which could tempt you to completely abandon the physical market. Sony has been pushing its digital store for several years with numerous discounts and promotions. Gone are the times when every game on the Playstation Store kept the full price even after months. Video games for less than ten euros are constantly offered every week, as well as numerous other offers on recently released titles. In fact, we often find ourselves buying video games in which we are not very interested, only because we can find them at a truly ridiculous price. Especially on older titles, you will therefore save on the purchase compared to the physical version. On Amazon, for example, you can find a game like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt of 2015 at an average price of twenty euros. The same game is often offered at a discount on the Playstation Store for just over five euros and this happens with hundreds of other titles.

Someone, however, could rightly turn up their noses if they owned several physical video games for Playstation 4, which they would like replay on the next generation console. Also in this case Sony has thought of a really interesting service, which will allow you to leave the old plastic packages on the shelf. We are talking about the PS Plus Collection, a collection of the best Playstation 4 titles available for free in digital format for all subscribers to the Playstation Plus service. Of course, many valid video games have not been included in the collection, but you could easily recover them digitally by selling the physical versions in your possession. If you're used to constantly renewing your subscription to the Sony service, this is a good offer for those who don't particularly care about their physical copies.

The speed of digital

While once per starting to play it was enough to really insert the disk you just bought into the console and turn it on, nowadays things have changed drastically. For example, by purchasing Demon's Souls at the launch of Playstation 5 on a brand new 100 gigabyte Blu-Ray and inserting it into your console, you will still have to wait for the video game to be installed. The reading speed of the internal reader does not even reach that of an SSD, so all the data of the video game must be copied back to the solid state drive. In this way, even the space occupied by the video game on disc or digital is exactly the same, because it must always be installed inside the console. In addition to this, you will often have to download heavy updates already on the day of release, which will still make you lose that immediacy of "insert the disc and play" as it did in the past.

Just for those who want to buy video games per day of release, there is an additional advantage of the digital market linked to the world of pre-orders. Sony gives the possibility to download a video game from the virtual store a few days before the release (the famous "preload" service). In this way, even those who do not have a lightning-fast internet connection can download the software to be able to play it instantly at 00:00 on the launch day. A not insignificant advantage, perhaps considering any delays of couriers and other shops in the supply of video games per day-one. Furthermore, it is no longer necessary to go to the trusted store a few months in advance to be able to ensure the pre-order of your favorite video game with the risk of finding it in limited availability.

While all these advantages are already available for the digital market on current consoles, the next will be exclusive to new generation machines. We are talking about the "Quick Resume" function and the quick transition from one video game to another. Having a very fast solid state memory, the next generation consoles will be able to keep the game we just suspended in a kind of "hibernation". In this way it will be possible to quickly pick up where we left off, without having to waste time starting and loading the game. In the same way we will be able to switch from one title to another quickly, simply by accessing the console menu and starting another one. The transition from one game to another will be fast only for owners of the digital copy as, if you own the physical version, you will still have to proceed with the mechanical disc change operation.