PS5 Digital Edition vs. Regular Edition – What to Choose?

Sony announced two editions of next-gen console PS5, a Digital Edition, and a Regular Edition. Giving rise to many questions like will there be a price difference? Do games on PS5 Digital Edition is cheaper than PS5 regular edition? Is it illogical to buy a PS5 Digital edition? etc. If you know the exact difference it will be easier for you to understand the difference between the two consoles. Sony has confused its user a little bit by providing these two models but there is a logical answer for this.

PS5 Digital Edition vs. PS5 Regular – What’s the difference and Why it matters?

PS5 Digital edition does not come with Optical Blu-Ray Disc. PS5 Regular edition, similar to existing PS4 models has a disc player. If you purchase PS5 Digital Edition, you will have to rely on game download only. And you cannot run games from disc. The big question is why does it matter? Most of the game today is digitally downloaded, especially the standard editions. But if there is a Collectors Edition or Gold Edition it comes packed with toy figures, merchandise, manuals/comics, and game disc.

The answer is simple if you pick PS5 Digital Edition you will get a slimmer version of the PS5 console. The right bump is missing that is reserved for disc players. You can see the design comparison above. Sony chooses to stand tall this time, bringing the new model in vertical format, breaking the horizontal boundaries for the first time, players have choice to try out two placement modes.

The choice between digital and regular edition does not impact much unless PS5 comes with backward compatibility support. If Sony is determined enough to completely block PS4 games then no matter what you pick. However, if there is backward compatibility then PS5 Regular Edition will be a wise choice because many PS4 games come in a disc. It is also easy to share with friends.

 

There is no concrete details by the officials on PS5 backward compatibility. Our speculations say Sony will keep the support for PS4 games, but with limitations. The majority of game developers today choose to go with digital copy through PS Store. Disc’s are kind of getting the old-school way of playing games. This is just an assumption, if Sony really wants to exclude backward compatibility for PS4 games complete then there won’t be a PS5 Regular Edition with a disc player.

Also, games are getting bigger, Last of Us 2 is around 100GB in download. If every game developer shifted to digital download, and PS5 comes only with 1TB storage, you cannot go above 6 to 8 games. This can be a huge pain, and re-downloading games is not a viable choice. Some developers might continue with a hard copy of their games to avoid unnecessary download and storage space consumption.

So we think PS5 Digital edition will not have backward compatibility support, while PS5 Regular Edition can run PS4 games. Otherwise, all your PS4 purchase will be wasted, no one would really love to buy GTA 5 once again on PS5.