The PlayStation 5 is a good console.
OK look- we're all shitting on Sony/PlayStation and they fu**ing deserve it! Prices, long game dev cycles, their whole live service clusterf***, and all console ecosystems deserve condemnation for charging for online play. You don't have to tell me they suck, I know and I agree.
But...
Just in and of itself as a value proposition for an entertainment device, the PS5 is awesome for a certain type of player.
First of all, it plays PS4 games. The Last of Us and Bloodborne are generationally brilliant games. So between PS4, PS5, and the available cross-platform games, a person who acquires a PS5 now has enough premium gaming entertainment to last a decade, even without subscribing to their stupid PS+.
Sony has their type of game they're known for, and I understand it's not for everybody- the "cinematic" single player game. The "movie" game. The pretty looking story games that are build primarily around comfort and ease of entry. That's why I say a certain type of player. Horizon, Norse God of War, Lasts of Us, Spidermen, Ghosts of Japanese Provinces, Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted. Anyone who doesn't care about that probably shouldn't get a PS5. But for those of us that like these kinds of games either primarily or as a part of our gaming diet (I, for one, enjoy digging into one or two per year), the PS5 is THE thing.
One big criticism of PS5 is that there are no games. I just... disagree? I guess we're talking about pure exclusives. But I would say Demons Souls remake and Astrobot, two wildly different best-in-class games already offer the console's unique value proposition. Factor in the games that got ported to PC and that's a whole world of big excellent games and are part of the value since most people don't have gaming capable PCs. And this is what I mean- if a person wants to buy ONE gaming device, the PS5 is a perfectly excellent choice.
Now I'm not considering sheer price and the upcoming price upgrades is the reason for this post because Sony is now turning what I think is an excellent product- contrary to the gamr opinion that PS5 is a "failed generation"- into some luxury item and it's a shame.
If someone today were to ask me for advice on which console to buy and I figured they'd be interested in the kinds of games Sony specializes in and they don't have some super space age TV, I'd probably tell them to find a PS4 on ebay so they could play the firsts of each Spiderman, Horizon, God of War, Last of Us, Ghost of, and of course freaking Bloodborne. By the time they get through all that maybe they can find a reasonably priced PS5.
Note also I'm just talking about the regular PS5. Not the Pro, which is stupid, not the subscription service as I hate them all, not the PS Portal or the expensive headphones or VR or any of that crap. Just the actual normal console, with or without disc drive.
Related: people need to chill about the Pro. All these crazy stories out there about people trying to get Pros because of the price hike- I dunno, how many people actually would benefit much from it? I think the "better" version of the same console is some bullshit and I just don't feel sorry for anyone with a PS5 trying to get a PS5 Pro.