PlayStation 5 News
Information
As you probably know, the PlayStation 5 has been one of the most anticipated products this year. Its challenger is the Xbox series X and there are two editions of the PS5, the Digital Edition and standard edition. The Digital edition costs €100 less than the standard edition of a hefty €500 price tag because the standard edition includes a disk drive that allows game disks from the former PlayStation consoles and the new PS5's disks. Before buying either edition of the new PlayStation (if you can find one) you may want to consider which edition you want to buy because it may be worth it to buy the Digital edition if you do not use any game disks and will not in the forseeable future.
Due to the massive anticipation of this product, Sony has been unable to fulfill stock to their consumers from local shops and online shopping stores. If you are wondering why this product is so highly anticipated, it is mostly due to the fact that everyone is at home right now and tend to have a lot of free time on their hands and would like to have the highest spec possible PlayStation on the market right now (especially before Christmas). The PS5's specifications list consists of stunning graphics of up to 120fps with 120Hz output, Ray tracing which is the realism of shadows and reflections while gaming, 8K support and HDR technology which displays an unbelievably vibrant and lifelike range of colours. These specs are probably not too extreme for a hardcore gamer who is used to much higher specs in a PC, but this package is very good for the average gamer who is not looking to spend over €1500 to match these specs on a PC. Also, the PS5 has some great features including backwards compatibility, faster and smoother frame rates for PS4 games.
The PS5 Dualsense controller is a part of the PS5 package which has a very sleek and curvy design, unfortunately it is heavier than the controllers pre-decessor Dualshock 4 (weight of 215 grams) by about 70 grams although I doubt you'll be dropping the controller over a 70-gram margin. Some new features that the Dualsense has includes extended battery life, a built-in microphone and haptic feedback which is just a fancier version of the Dualshock's 4 controller rumble that is more immersive and gives more precise feedback when using the controller.
PlayStation Plus Collection
As an extra bonus Sony has implemented a collection of PlayStation games for the PS5 that come with the PlayStation plus package which must be owned to play online multiplayer which costs €9 monthly, €25 every 3 months or €60 every 12 months at max price (These prices may vary depending on sales on the online PlayStation store). The collection of games includes games that were made available free every month via PlayStation plus on the PlayStation 4 with a few extra exciting games. More games made available will be added every month continuing what it did on PS4. This month (December) Just Cause 4, Rocket Arena and Worms Rumble have been made available for all PlayStation plus owners on PS4 and PS5. This month's games are relatively average considering a few brilliant games that have been made available since the start of this year like Fall Guys, Hollow Knight and Battlefront 2.
PS5 Stock Updates (Ireland and UK)
Unfortunately, such a brilliant product has its drawbacks and in this case, its the stock, people have been trying and trying to get their hands on the latest PlayStation but unfortunately the only people who have managed to get their hands on one are people who pre-ordered the console pre-release and some lucky people who refresh every local store's online store page every minute day and night. Lots of online bots have also bought the PlayStation's reducing the stock for the consumers because people who own these illegal bots can resell the product for double the price online due to the lack of PlayStations currently available, buying from resellers can be very risky because there is a high chance you'll be swindled while feeding a reseller's back pocket.
Sony has warned that more PS5's will be made available before Christmas but stores like Smyths, Amazon, Argos, GameStop and Currys have already said that PS5's won't be stocked until 2021. GameStop are currently still trying to satisfy stock for people who have already pre-ordered a PS5 from their store who will be contacted by email or text message with an order update. The other stores are either hoping to acquire the product's stock or have the realistic view that they will be acquiring more stock in the early months of 2021.
