Both Sony and Microsoft have now produced flagship gaming consoles with no optical disc drive, though in Sony’s case you still have the option to add one later. It might seem like a good idea to save some money and skip the drive, but if you do there’s a good chance you’ll end up regretting it at some point.
You might say that you never use the drive in your console, so why pay for one? Well, as I’ll explain below, buying a console with a drive will likely save you more money than the cost of leaving it out, even if you rarely use it.
5
You’re Saving Very Little Money
In the case of the Xbox Series X and Series X Digital Edition, the usual price difference is $50. Likewise, the cost of the disc drive for a PlayStation 5 Slim or Pro is about $80. That’s not small change, but considering that video games cost between $60 and $100, it’s not that much money in the context of the hobby as a whole.
This matters, because if buying a console with a drive saves you more than the price of the drive itself, then the argument that you’re saving some cash by skipping the drive falls flat. In fact, you are then paying more than you need to for the privilege of having fewer features on your console.
Of course, that begs the question of how that little drive is going to pay for itself, so let’s get right into that.
4
You’re Locked Into Game Pricing
If you don’t have a physical game media option, then you are completely locked into the pricing of the console’s walled-garden store. There is no one for that store to be in competition with when it comes to your discless console, so they can just charge whatever price they like, and you can take it or leave it.
In the case of Sony, the company stopped selling digital game codes to third-party retailers years ago, so unless you live in Brazil, you are out of luck. It’s the PlayStation Store or nothing.
Sure, console makers still offer regular sales and even deep discounts on digital games, but you might consider that this is happening because of competition from other game companies as well as physical game retailers. The in-house store makes fatter margins than retail, so there’s an incentive to drive sales through the digital marketplace. If the physical marketplace stops existing at some point, that incentive goes away.
Related
An All-Digital Future Is Bad News for Console Gamers, Here’s Why
All-digital consoles could be a trojan horse for gamers
3
You Can’t Sell Games You’ll Never Play Again
I don’t know about you, but the vast majority of games I buy will only be played once, and then probably never again. This is why I only buy digital games on deep discount months after they release, else I’ll buy them as a physical copy and then sell the game after finishing it to get some of my money back.
Even so, I’ve still managed to build up a huge backlog of digital games that I will never, ever touch again. Thankfully I probably paid single-digit prices for most of them, since I very rarely buy games at launch.
If you buy a game for $60 and then sell or trade it for $30, then by game number two or three, your drive has paid for itself, and from that point onward it’s making you money. Heck, you could make back the money you spent on the console itself eventually.
2
You Can’t Buy Cheap Used Games
The ability to sell your games segues neatly into the ability to buy used games for much lower prices. If you’re willing to simply wait a few weeks before buying a new game that’s just come out, you can usually get it for a fraction of the new price. Let’s say you save $20 by buying a used game.
That’s $240 a year compared to buying the game new digitally at launch. I think one game a month is probably a reasonable expectation for someone who’s a casual gamer and plays and finishes one title a month. Of course, the more hardcore you are, the more you save, and not to mention that you can sell the used game again which makes the savings per game even bigger.
Related
5 Reasons Not to Buy Games at Launch Anymore
It’s tempting to buy a game the minute it launches, but you should probably wait.
1
You’ll Be Sad When Your Favorite Streaming Shows and Movies Disappear
Streaming is convenient, but only a fraction of shows and movies are available for streaming at any one moment, and if you have a comfort show or favorite movie that goes away and is no longer streaming, physical media is your best option. Not only is the quality much better, no one can suddenly take your show away or change its contents.
Related
Why I Bought Star Trek on Blu-ray Despite Streaming Services
I don’t have to suffer from saucer-separation anymore.
At least if you have one of the new PS5s you can add a drive at any time and gain the ability to play DVDs and Blu-Rays, but if you have the old PS5 Digital or one of the Xbox Digital Editions, you’re going to have to buy a dedicated Blu-Ray player, and that’s probably going to cost more than the $50-$80 getting a disc-based console would have been extra.
It’s always good to have choices as a customer, but in this case the choice your offered only benefits console makers. They want you to pick consoles with no disc drives, because that means they can eventually do away with the option of a disc drive completely.
Once that happens, console gaming is going to be a whole lot less pleasant, and given that disc drives can still clearly benefit you even in this day and age, I’d suggest you’d think twice about saving that $50.
