The Best Time to Buy PS5 Will Be a Year After Its Launch [OPINION]

Table of Contents

• The Best Time to Buy PS5 Will Be a Year After Its Launch [OPINION]
• Second wave

Second wave

The situation repeats every time and it's not just Sony – the launches of Nintendo and Xbox One consoles were similar. A handful of multiplatform games, which we might as well play on previous-gen, and a few exclusives, which are designed to showcase the sheer hardware capabilities – rarely games that'd be absolutely worth getting at launch. Waiting it out has two main advantages: first, when you buy the console, you've actually got interesting games to play, and second, they usually get cheaper in the meantime. You may also be able to save at least a few bucks on the console itself.

This, in turn, lets you avoid the frustration resultant from having the new console gather dust, while you're still playing on the PC, or prev-gen. Futhermore, manufacturers don't always get everything right, so the first buyers can expect surprises like the infamous RROD – the three red LEDs that announced the death of from 23.4% to 54.2% (exact figures vary depending on the source) of the first Xbox 360s.

The RROD proved a nightmare for many early buyers of the Xbox 360.

The 360 was a holder of a lousy record, but other consoles also have their share of misfires. The most serious bugs appeared shortly after the launch, and are eliminated in subsequent units, greatly increasing their reliability. By waiting it out, we minimize the risk of having to have a faulty unit replaced.

Hope is the mother of the naive

Despite being aware of these regularities, I was waiting for the reveal of PS5 and hoping that it would convince me not to delay the generational leap this time around. The reason for this optimism was... Nintendo. Switch bucked the trend, and was a real sensation in terms of lunch titles – the main thrust was, of course, the already classic Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild and the underrated Snipperclips (hands-down the best local coop game out there, for real!), and soon afterwards, we got Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Splatoon 2, Arms and Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

AND I WAS BORED ANYWAY

I bought Switch right after it launched and I perfectly remember the empty store and not many interesting games – apart from the ones listed above. I'd venture to say that Switch' initial months were just as lean, certainly not perfect, and many players complained about a shortage of games.

Still, it was fun to ride the hype wave for a while, even if it wasn't entirely rational after all. I can already see myself buying PS5 at launch and complaining I've got nothing to play. ;-)

Adam Zechenter

Switch' first year was phenomenal and made for a tremendous success.

Switch' reputation is now undeniable, and the company managed to cover all the losses from Wii U. Therefore, I was sort of hoping Sony would follow suit and try to repeat the move on June 11, giving us so many exclusives our heads would spin. Unfortunately.

Most of the announced games have an unspecified release date, and all we know is that we won't play them this year. The games that should arrive before 2021 (and thus can be considered launch-support) are: Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Astro’s Playroom, Bugsnax, Deathloop, Godfall, JETT: The Far Shore, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, NBA 2k21 and The Pathless. Of this group, only Miles Morales and Astro's Playroom will be actual exclusives. The latter promises to be more of a pleasant morsel than a full-fledged game, while the former doesn't even try to pretend to be a true next-gen title – it's more like an expansion to an existing series.

The Playroom and the VR Playroom, which preceded Astro's Playroom, were collections of enjoyable minigames, but let's not get fooled – no one will but a new console for these.

Still, these two games may largely define the initial momentum of the console. And Horizon 2, Resident Evil VIII the new Ratchet & Clank, my most-wanted games? They'll be released, too. Someday. Perhaps six months after the launch. Maybe a year. Or maybe they won't arrive at all let's bear in mind that one of the first games announced for PS4 was Deep Down. Capcom still pretends that the game has not been deleted and will be released one day.

Horizon: Forbidden Wilds will be reason enough to buy a console... someday.

I'll wait.

Hype can be fun, but spending the hard-earned money on something that, as the young Cerro said to King Vridanek during their first tryst, "Isn't a bad-looking thing, but does it have any practical use?" I'll wait. There's still plenty of PS4 games I haven't tried, and I dare to assume some of them are much better than the PS5 launch titles will be. And there's still more coming. Before the dust settles after the launch of next-gen, I'll have played games like Hitman 3, Oddworld: Soulstorm, and probably another dozen of games that will still be announced.

I am certainly hyped for PlayStation 5; I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what the future holds. But I will only take the leap once there's dozens of games to choose from, rather than two or three. And when the first discounts will have started appearing. When the "childhood diseases" of the console are diagnosed and cured. When it won’t be a purchase based on emotions.