The staredown between Microsoft and Sony has ended. Microsoft was the first to blink, revealing the release date and price of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.
Both consoles will be available on November 10; the Xbox Series X will cost $499 and the Xbox Series S will be priced at $299. While the more expensive console matched pricing expectations, the cost of the Series S received a warm reaction from gamers.
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Now the pressure is on Sony to reveal a competitive price for the PS5 — and I can't stress enough how important this decision is. When Sony said in 2013 that the PS4 would cost $100 less than the Xbox One, it immediately put its rival on the back foot. It marked a role reversal from the previous console generation when the PS3 was received poorly due to its $499 starting price (the Xbox 360 started at $299).
Sony knows it can't make the same mistake again and, based on the latest report, it won't. European gaming publication Gamereactor, citing an anonymous source, claims the PS5's price was "considerably" more expensive until Xbox revealed the price of its consoles. An update to the report says Sony decided to reduce the price of the PS5 to $399 for the digital version and $499 for the regular model.
If this is true, the flagship consoles for PlayStation and Xbox will go head-to-head at the same price. Xbox will have a pricing advantage on the Series S, but remember, that console is less powerful than the Series X whereas the PS5 Digital Edition is identical to the standard PS5 except that it omits the 4K Blu-Ray drive.
Sony has yet to announce the price or release date of the PS5, and we won't know the official price of the console until it does. As this is a report from an anonymous source, you should eye it with some skepticism. Even if the reported prices end up being accurate, we might never find out whether Xbox's announcement had an influence on Sony's own pricing.
What we do know is that the clock is ticking for Sony — and it feels like only a matter of time before we learn the final, crucial details about its next console.
