PlayStation’s boss has reiterated he feels ‘value’ is more important than price for PS5

PlayStation has again emphasised value over price when discussing the PS5’s price point.

While video game sales have actually increased during the coronavirus pandemic, the long-term implications for the industry are less certain, and many consumers may not be in a position to afford new hardware when it launches this holiday season.

This is a situation PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan acknowledged last month, stating that the best thing it could do to address the economic situation was to offer “the best possible value proposition,” but not “necessarily” the lowest price.

Speaking in a new interview with the BBC, Ryan again emphasised value over price in relation to PlayStation 5.

“Conventional wisdom and history show that our business is one of the more recession-proof businesses,” he said. “But I think this will sharpen our need to ensure that we focus on getting the value equation right. And I emphasise value as opposed to price.

“We must be more attentive than ever before to ensure that the overall value proposition in terms of the console and the games – the range of games, the quality of games, the quantity of games – makes this something that our community aspires towards.”

Sony introduced a second digital-only PlayStation 5 console on Thursday, which sacrifices its Blu-ray disc drive likely for a lower price point.

However, when asked about the motivation behind Digital Edition, Ryan would not commit to a difference in cost.

“You’re not going to hear anything on price today,” he said. “But many of our consumers are purchasing solely digitally these days. We thought that we would do what we typically try and do, and just offer choice.”

According to a Bloomberg report in mid-April, Sony plans to produce “far fewer” PlayStation 5 launch units compared to PS4, due to an expected hit on demand caused by the console’s high price.

The publication had previously claimed Sony was struggling to determine the PlayStation 5 price due to a shortage of components which have resulted in increased manufacturing costs.

Earlier this week retailer Amazon claimed that a PlayStation 5 listing with a £599 price point was “an error.”