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Old fart alert: My son has, to his credit, saved up enough pocket money and birthday money to afford a PlayStation. I'm really quite proud of him, he's worked hard and done really well. Thing is - I've absolutely no clue about these things. I've never owned a console! Which version is he better to go for, digital or disc? The games all seem quite pricey. They are touting a subscription service too. I'd just like some advice from those more up to speed with such matters as to what's the recommended set up and way to go. Thanks!
Assuming PS5. Disc version is more flexible, but TBH I download most of my games these days. If you run out of space, you can delete the game but you don't lose ownership of it. You'll be able to play older (cheaper ) PS4 games if you get the disc version.
You need a playstation plus account to play online against other people (which is probably what he wants to do, but might not be age-appropriate). It's £50 for a year (or £7 a month).
https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/ps-plus/
And yes, games are pricey - literally thousands of hours of work goes into them and it's big business.
Definitely disc, the price of disc games falls quicker than digital and they can be sold on.
One slight point to be aware is that there will likely be physically smaller model later in the year. But if he wants one now and is happy with how large it is then not an issue.
I have the digital version and not found it an issue. If you want a few AAA games on the go at once you might need to be a second internal NVMe drive (which can get quite pricey for 2-4TB models rated for the PS5) but I haven't had the need yet. I tend to delete (from local disk, you still own it and just need to re-download) once I'm done with a game
PS5 in fantastic, last console I had was the PS2. The controller is brilliant and even the free inbuilt game is good to get started.
The disc version allows you to buy and own a physical copy so as said these can be bought/sold 2nd hand. The game installs to the console so uses space and the disc needs to be in for that game.
I like to jump about between games in a session and go back to those games over a long time, so I prefer digital downloads despite having the disc version. I filled it up quickly so added 1TB extra storage which has been plenty and I would have been happy with the digital version.
If he's more into dedicated play then move on I'd get the disc version.
Loads of good games come up on sale often. For example, I got Riders Republic for £15 as a download recently and my lad loves it. No way I could bring myself to pay £70 for a game, I just stay behind the curve and it's a lot cheaper.
I have a disc version, I barely use the disc. But then, I don't go through games quickly and most of my games are oddball things picked up from the far corners of the online PS store for a tenner or so. Big name titles are expensive, but there's loads out there that's cheap and/or old but still good.
Lots of PS4 games are on the PS store though, you can still play them.
Another thing to bear in mind that he'll probably *want* Playstation Plus (the subscription) in order that he can play online and it comes with lots of free games (full games, often some great games but just a bit older, such as Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Final Fantasy etc - with new releases each month) so, depending on how avid a gamer he is, he might not even need to be buying latest releases and can fill his boots with free games.
And the subscription can often be bought for less than the full annual price by shopping around - latest deals here.
Disc is more expensive but means he can both buy and sell used games so possibly cheaper in the long run. Either way with PS5 the subscription is pretty much an essential, but also allows game play without purchasing games so worth it if used regularly. I went with digital purely due to initial outlay as I don’t use it loads and don’t need DVD/Blu-ray capability.
How old is he?
My experience with the Xbox: I went for the disc-based console because, well, I could. But as well as having the disc drive the Series X is a more powerful console than its discless brother, which I don't believe is the case with the PS5.
With a disc drive you've got access to the used games market (Game, CEX et al) which on the PS5 includes most PS4 titles, so can be a way of getting games cheap. For new releases, buying games direct through the console rather than on disc is often the most expensive way of doing so. And of course, you can recoup money on disc games you don't play any more.
For me, I've bought preorder / day-1 release games in the past but it's vanishingly rare, it'd have to be an exceptional title for me to be bothered about not waiting a month for the price to halve. This may be different if I was a lad wanting to play the same game as all my mates.
All that said, I haven't bought a game costing more than a couple of quid in months because the Xbox Game Pass is astonishingly good. I've got more games than I can possibly play and there are new ones added every month. I assume the Playstation offering (PS Now?) is similar.
Congratulations to your child on saving up!
Earlier this year I bought a PS5 disc version from the BT shop online as it was the best deal at the time.
Disc version because I still have Blu-Ray disc to play, a bunch of PS4 games on disc, and as folks have pointed out, it’s possible to get used games cheap at times on eBay etc.
PSN is generally fairly good value as far as I know. I don’t have it - barely any time to play my current games. One of our children occasionally buys a month’s sub if there’s a particular reason to play online. They used to ask for a year’s sub for birthday presents sometimes.
Having said that about discs you can get GT7 discs online or used for half the price it is on the PS store.
Playstation Extra is worth considering, there are a wealth of games that can be had as part of this which makes the outlay worthwhile, similar to games pass for the xbox.
My son rarely buys new games now, and when he does its download, but we have the disc version as we had a few ps4 games he played on it, they've migrated downstairs with the ps4 now.
I'd still go disc, but it's becoming less important if its just a gaming machine.
Downloads are good as we can share between accounts as well.
The disc is worth it if you also want a 4k blu-ray player. Otherwise it largely depends on how much you want to be chained to the PS Store - yes, buying disc games can be cheaper (and you can resell) but there's a £100-ish price difference which you could spend on games.
PS Plus Extra (£84pa, or £34 more than the basic PS Plus subscription) gives access to a library of hundreds of games - if you have plenty of free time then it's a really good deal.
Good work Thebeard mini!
PS5 is great. I always go disc for consoles and I can then sell the games on if I don’t like them. Got quite a few digital only but prefer the flexibility.
New PS5 games are pricey. I normally wait until they’re onsale somewhere or buy second hand.
Loads of PS4 games available at better prices though. The PS store does really good offers on the digital games sometimes too, normally two weeks after I buy them. 🤣
We’ve got PS Plus basic tier subscription. Lets the boys play online and you get the occasional decent ‘free’ game popping up monthly.
Enjoy!
Excellent, thanks all. I think I'll let him choose which version he goes for, but to my mind digital with a subscription probably makes sense as he figures out what games he likes and online multiplayer with his mates will be what he'll want to do.
Does anyone know if it is possible to share the PlayStation Plus between children under the same roof? My eldest has a PS5 with PS plus and my youngest now wants PS plus for his PS4. I am loathed to pay twice for it but have not been able to find a way to do it. They would want to keep their individual profiles though.
No, not on different consoles. They can on the same console though AFAIK.
You can share the games across multiple consoles I think. We do this with the ps4. You can't use the same account at the same time but you can set up other accounts and play the games.
@nfn You can share the PS subscription as it's what we do across our PS4 and PS5.
How we do it is:
I'm the primary account holder on both devices and I have the PS Plus subscription with the kids having their own user profile on the devices.
Downside of this is that they can't use the cloud to store/backup their saves but they can both play online just fine.
Upside is that if you buy a digital game and do it on the main account then you can download it to both devices without having to buy it twice, in the case of FIFA we got the PS4/5 version so could still download device specific versions and make the most of the PS5's awesomeness.
As for general PS5 advice, I got the disc version as that means you can take advantage of the 2nd hand games market. I also got an external gaming SSD (WD Black) as you can store and run PS4 games from that, leaving the internal one for PS5 games.
You should award him with a game. Dredge is apparently the latest in thing.
I’m the primary account holder on both devices and I have the PS Plus subscription with the kids having their own user profile on the devices.
Downside of this is that they can’t use the cloud to store/backup their saves but they can both play online just fine.
Really? Wow.
The PS is battering the Xbox on sales and it's nominally more powerful, but Sony has always lagged behind Microsoft when it comes to the online experience. Not being able to save to the cloud without a subscription went out with the Xbox One ten years ago.
If I have an account logged into a console then any other profile can access my subscription benefits even if they're not playing using my profile. There's also a Home Console concept where my sub can be used without being logged in at all. So I could set a mate's console as my Home and they reciprocate, we then both have access to each other's games. (Obviously, there's a degree of trust involved here...!) There's nothing stopping me signing in to multiple consoles simultaneously.
There's also the concept of Family Groups. So the adult could be the wallet-holder, as it were, and the two kids have their own profiles but have to ask dad for purchases. I'd be astonished if the PSx didn't have something similar.
If I have an account logged into a console then any other profile can access my subscription benefits even if they’re not playing using my profile.
That's the case on a single PS as well. The issue we had is that we have three PSs. So whilst the kids could play all my PS Plus content when logged into the main family console as themselves, they could not then play those games on their own PS. However, I could.
There’s also the concept of Family Groups. So the adult could be the wallet-holder, as it were, and the two kids have their own profiles but have to ask dad for purchases. I’d be astonished if the PSx didn’t have something similar.
It does.
I can confirm that dredge is good fun, not particularly long or difficult, but unique with a decent story.
Awesome! Thanks so much for this info.
You can share the games across multiple consoles I think
Yeah this is a neat feature, my brother's PS5 is linked to mine so any game I buy he can d/l and play on his. You do need to provide your PS credentials to do it but it's a great money saver.