Unfortunately, PS5's Disc Drive Add-On Shortage Doesn't Seem to Be Getting Better

Honestly at this rate I can see why some are of the belief that this is a deliberate strategy from Sony.

There is no way that Sony with all their manufacturers and distributors, can't get these out on a more consistent basis, same goes for the Dualsense Edge stick modules.

They've rode the PR train by "offering options" only to ensure those options are never readily available, forcing players down a far more expensive path, to only Sony's benefit.

I bought a disc drive for £132 in the end (wasn't happy about it), but with no signs of them coming back in stock I had no choice, Sony should be ashamed of themselves for this kind of pratice.

I hope they buck their ideas up before the PS6 launches (on the assumption that it also will require a separate disc drive)

Well there's some available here in Connecticut at my local Walmart and Target. This reminds me of when the PS5 came out and everyone was claiming there was none available, but there were always PS5's in stock at my local Walmart and Target. They always had PS5's and Series S' but never had a Series X in stock. So........

@DonJorginho I completely agree. It's really starting to seem like Sony is trying to force people's hand and get them to switch to digital only.

It's interesting how they overestimated demand for the Pro and underestimated demand for the disc drive. Probably that the relatively small niche of people willing to pay £700 for a console upgrade are more likely to be the type of person with a large physical collection.

Picked up an offline playable Blu-ray player for 30 bucks to solve my media problems. My sympathies for the devout Physical collectors of games tho.

Still happy to stick with my OG PS5 with disc-drive after over 3 years

As a person, who skipped PS5 era all together, I could not care less, to be honest!
When hardware components of PS5 first announced, I immediately said "Not gonna buy that!", since we are that close to PS6 era, I can not be more happy.
Spending good times with my PS4 (white edition), PS3 Slim (with move & camera), Xbox one s, Xbox 360 halo reach limited edition, Xbox, PS1 and my solid PC.
Just like everyone else, I got quite a bit backlog, so.. No need to rush for PS6 (for me).

Meanwhile, there’s four of them at my local Walmart. Saw them in the display case yesterday.

Can't get a Dualsense Edge stick module near me for love nor money.

I was just trying to find one yesterday, but refuse to pay scalpers. Been waiting to get a drive before I sell my launch PS5. Sony really needs to sort this out...

Scalpers win again thanks to Sony. I'm glad I have a Pro but it's beyond silly and I don't think they're prioritising production. There have been disc drives reappearing in stores but they're always gone fast.

Only reason I haven't bought a pro here in the uk is because I can't get a drive for the damn thing.

@DonJorginho

There is no way that Sony with all their manufacturers and distributors, can't get these out on a more consistent basis, same goes for the Dualsense Edge stick modules.

It’s easy to forget the realities of the real world but these will be produced in China and Cargo ships take 4-6 weeks just to get From China to the USA. That’s ignoring the actual production time, which might not even be possible if extra production capacity wasn’t booked in advance, and once it get’s to the USA or Europe it will then just be in a giant warehouse at a dock and need to be sent to regional giant warehouses before it can be sent to the retailers etc.

Ships also get delayed etc. All sorts of things can happen in between a guy in an office saying “Ok, let’s make more” to the point they arrive at final retail. 2 months is not a lot of time in these complex supply chain systems, especially when those 2 months happened to fall in the busiest period of the entire year.

Got lucky and got one from Currys UK that sold out in minutes, in early December 2024.

Shameful on Sony though, who I don’t think care as it means you have to go digital.

The greed is terrible a lot of companies not just Sony have been showing last year and unfortunately it will continue.
Especially if products keep selling.
As consumers we just to accept all this corporate manipulation nowadays.

I bought the disc drive when I pre-ordered the PS5 Pro. So far I haven’t used it much, and oddly it had some initial troubles reading my Cyberpunk 2077 disc, but nothing else, even though there were no physical defects on it.

Hopefully my drive isn’t defective.

I'm so glad my Pro came with a drive bundled in.

Agree with what others are saying though, Sony is definitely trying to force people to be digital only and it's horrid. Until the store isn't a closed platform discs should exist.

I literally just bought a physical copy of a remake of a 30 year old game for the nostalgia and limited edition content. Could have got it £7 cheaper on the store, but the game means something to me so I want to see it's case on my shelf.

No doubt intentional from this now terrible, greedy company.

I had to wait maybe 10 days before retailers got them. €120,- I think it was. And I had promised to not buy that damn console in the first place 😂 unfortunately I'm the perfect target consumer for exactly that type of product 🤷‍♀️

Oh dear, what a shame, never mind 😜

@DonJorginho If they want to play it like this no problem ill just buy a Switch 2 if they are unlucky ill just leave PlayStation behind. I have been on PlayStation since the Playstation 1 but that is no issue anymore. Nintendo has tons of great games many RPG's its fine with me.

@ChrisDeku But they are never in stock in the Netherlands so that is nonsense they just want to push us to their overpriced online store. The store that sells you rentals at full price.

@Shepherd_Tallon
Ive never heard that they 'overestimated' the number of Pros either - apart from a few 'sources' who would like you to think it wasnt selling well... whereas last I read was it had sold above expectations.
They were just far more prepared for Pros launch than PS5... Well apart from the drives which I put down to ineptitude rather than conspiracy!

They don’t want you to get one of these. Oh what a shame… guess you’ll just have to pay Sony’s prices through their own store.

What's so crazy about this is I don't even want the drive to play PS5 games. I haven't purchased a single PS5 game on disc. I just want the drive to play movies and the PS4 games I already own...

@Shepherd_Tallon
Yes, not to mention (based purely on the 'I'll wait until drives are available' comments) they could probably be selling more Pro's!

@Shepherd_Tallon Well when scalpers are selling them off at a loss due to lack of demand that does imply that the demand is nowhere near the supply. Whereas scalpers are actually profiting from the disc drive. You can say "healthy supply" but companies will try to get the production as close to demand as they can do they don't spend money on stock that's sitting around for months, not only not generating a profit but costing even more money on storage. They could've saved money by making less of them, and equally they could've made more money by making more disc drives.

Some retailers are now delisting them, which means they won't be getting stock.

It could be PS Direct are holding back stock so that they can focus on replenishing their own supply when the time comes, as it would be a really poor show if they discontinue the add-on

That’s certainly one way to ensure a digital-only future. This kind of rug pull is 1000% intentional IMHO and totally in-line and on-brand for PS5-era Sony’s late stage capitalistic money grubbing.

Over 250 euro's in my country. To hell with those prices. I would consider a pro if I can buy the Discdrive for the normal price.

It's very funny to me that these things were in stock pretty much everywhere with the release of the PS5 Slim, but the moment the Pro was announced to not include one, they sold out instantly.

@ChrisDeku oh don’t get me wrong there’s a lot of variables in motion to get things from factory to shelf, but this has been a constant, even in the non holiday months.

I dunno, here in Denmark there are plenty....only thing that got snatched right away was the 30th anniversary console. Impossible to find.

Sony is on tony Montana crack cocaine for not having a disc drive on the ps5 pro.trully horrible move by sony.word up son

They should have made as many disc drives as they made ps5-pro consoles i wonder why they didn't.
Scalpers are loving it on eBay.

It's clear Sony are doing this to try push more people to the digital only future all publishers really want

I said it before and I will say it again. Sony doesn't care about it because it's good for them as they still make the sales either way, and scalpers get that extra to their pocket.

Why would they flood the market with them when suddenly everyone who needed it gets the disk drive and then it will start being refunded by scalpers to get their money back.

@N7Vakarian only this

Maybe Herman could give Phil a call… after all a ps5 is an Xbox, maybe they could spare a few drives?

I wouldn't be sure there will be more on their way at this point. Sony are rubbish at supporting peripheral demand and routinely underestimate it.

@DonJorginho yeah it does feel like a deliberate attempt to push people towards digital, especially new pro owners.

Glad I managed to find one before they all sold!

Maybe I just got lucky, but I was able to get the disc drive in October, 2024 from Best Buy.

Seen 2 in a CEX window - preowned £170 each.
Ouch.

@Medic_alert 100% this.

It's funny how the pro has been discounted loads and scalpers can't shift them but the disc drive is in such demand.

Sony 100% knew what they were doing by not including a disc drive $$$$$

@Mikey856 scalpers. You can still get a pro from anywhere and they've been discounted alot

Just the disc drive is the issue....

@Matroska problem is though it's not just the pro model that needs a disc drive

Sony doesn't want to make too many and end up with stock they can't sell - I suspect much of the shortage is simply that. Unless they commit to the PS6 supporting the same drive (and why not?), they have NO incentive to overproduce drives, especially when they see they can make another (small) batch and sell them all at any time.

I still can't fathom the thinking behind not including one with the pro, extra money aside. As, I believe, the most popular base PS5 was the disc based version. Surely Sony can see the potential customer preference for a drive based system... I guess they just chose to ignore it and then proceeded to drop the ball on ensuring there was enough stock to cover the pro sales.
I bought one from HMV when the pro was announced, thinking that I could sell it on (not at scalp rates) if I didn't get a pro... Ended up getting fomo with the pro and picked one up anyway 😅

@Matroska They never overestimated demand for the pro, they had proper stock in order to beat the scalpers and it worked.

I got really lucky at Best Buy. I asked and the guy looked in the back and found one. It is frustrating that Sony hasn't ramped up the production of these things.

Undoubtedly, somewhere there's a trail of communications that Sony policy is to get rid of the high street software sales to drive people to their own market place and streaming services that no one wants.

Feel the next anti trust from EU would be looking into this in the same way they've challenged Apple over their anti competitive practices.

If Sony continue like this then they must be forced to enable alternative market places and second hand sales on their devices.

I managed to snatch one on Direct and then upgraded. As a Pro owner I hope this shortage doesn't depress Pro sales / make developers less apt to create Pro Enhanced games

If the PS6 doesn't have a built-in disc drive, the chances of me buying it as an early adopter will be very, very low. They've already removed nearly all incentive anyway. The PS6 Pro will be just around the corner after all.

Sony really should have prepared for this much more competently.

I was very fortunate to get a disc drive, and it was very much luck, combination of Curry's drop VERY early on a Friday morning (about 6:30am) in early Decemeber and me being awake early due to my cat deciding to walk all over my face and wake me. Apart from that, I still wouldn't have one. So I can't imagine how people who still don't have one feel. Beyond frustration.

The only advice I would give is set email alerts for all the major outlets and hope for the best.

Sony having the sales figures that 70-80% of consoles sold are with a disc drive means they knew 80% of Pro buyers would be after a disc drive so should've been ready to supply, it's gone past being inconvenient now, it's borderline farcical. I'm still hoping for a massive drop that causes all those scalpers to have to sell what they've got their grubby mitts on at a loss, but it doesn't look like Sony could organise a drinking session in a brewery right now. To put it politely.

And if this is some sort of digital push strategy the truth will out and the CMA can nail their balls to the wall for all I care..

@Esquilax86 Ha! That was me when the PS5 was like hens teeth! But come this bloody thing and I've had zero luck whatsoever, ain't even getting notifications from retailers as they're gone so fast. Luckily I didn't need to flirt my base PS5 to pay for it so I'm not stuck, do feel like I've wasted £700 though....

little by little, people are being conditioned to "accept" a digital future and throw away their physical games library. soon, the majority of gamers will be at the mercy of the publishers and they will realize that they made a grave mistake in adopting a format that they literally have no control over.

games will be getting de-listed on digital storefronts more often with no real way of obtaining them (other than through piracy). even worse, publishers will have less incentive in offering sales on digital-only software when there is no longer competition from the traditional retailers or second hand marketplaces. so, you are running into a situation where piracy will likely increase significantly in the coming years as many people lived and died by the used game market of physcal media and/or purchasing their games physically which often times is cheaper than the lowest price point offered by most digital storefronts.

on one hand, the publishers will be salivating and frothing at the mouth by the new found power they have at their disposal in price setting; on the other hand, they will face sales declines due to an increase in piracy and gamers simply not being in a financial position to pay up the inflated prices. at the end of the day, we are talking about petty entertainment here... and with the cost of living always, always, always going up, people are going to resort to life necessities over gaming when things get bad enough. this has the potential to completely disrupt the gaming industry in ways we have never seen, especially when you consider how vulenerable and unsustainable the AAA space has been for the past 10 years now. this means less AAA games, less risks, more mindless sequels, more nickel and diming, more publishers and developers being shut down...

when the ps6 launches, i'll likely not be in a rush to purchase one considering how poorly everything has gone this console generation. but, it is likely that sony will release a digital-only SKU of the ps6 with an "optional" disc drive to please the masses like they did with the ps5 pro. this will be yet another PR stunt, but i would definitely learn from the current situation and purchase the disc drive ASAP as it is likely to sell out and never come back again after that. just like physical gaming media. in case i ever pick up a ps6, i'll at least have the disc drive for backwards compatibility of ps4/ps5 games. as for ps6 games, it's likely that we will only be getting a fraction of the ps6 library released on disc.

There isn’t a shortage. I can literally order one today from my local Argos and collect it in an hour. You just need to know where to look

I can't believe how lucky I was with mine. Back in later November, I just went online and did a click and collect at our local Argos store. Boom job done. I think I inadvertently purchased the last one at retail in the country.

I'm totally ok with my basic disc drive version of PS5. I don't need a console without it.

@Jrs1 Okay, but they also somehow didn't have enough stock for the disc drive to beat the scalpers? This is my point; if they knew what the demand for each item was, they would have "beat the scalpers" in both cases. Instead they made way too many Pros and nowhere near enough disc drives. So the only logical conclusion is they thought they'd sell more Pros and less disc drives. When scalpers are selling Pros at a loss, and when the Pro goes on sale almost immediately at various retailers, that means not only did they make a few too many, but they made way too many. And at the same time made not enough disc drives - which in both cases is what my original point described.

Sony still strong with their anti-consumer mandate.
The stock situation with the disc drives is an absolute joke - either it's being done on purpose, or the company is run by complete tool bags.

@Flaming_Kaiser interesting topic, considering our conversation earlier today.

Switch 2 should be good for you, as you seem to like their library of games.

As you know, this is my last gen and this sort of topic and reading through comments about a possible all digital future, means, for me, that I’m making the right choice.

I have bought the Disk Drive and even some thumbsticks for my Dual Sense Edge after monitoring the UK market for about 3 weeks. It was rough. But I did it. Kiss my donkey scalpers.

@Member_the_game PS6 will be completely digital. By making ps5 disc drives rare they're conditioning the market to go digital.

What playstation could do is just go back to having a disc drive with the ps5 pro. Problem solved.
As not including a disc saying it gives you more options is like losing a leg and saying you've more lifestyle options.

@Boucho11 I looked at all the stores in England and none for Argos now..

Seven years ago mid December 2017 I walked into my local Best Buy and picked up a PS4 Pro off a stack on the floor. My Xmas present to myself. The cost $350, it came with a disk drive, a web browser, it was a pretty matte black rectangle, and was bundled with a game. This PS5 gen just continues to disappoint.

@Darylb88 you looked at every store? I’ve just checked my local store and can get one. I’m not in England though

About 9/10 months ago the Disc Drive was being sold on Amazon at a reduced price at £79.99. I bought one then, also my wife bought one for me to surprise me. Now I a spare drive just in case this one fails 😄

Meanwhile I'm rocking my launch day disc 💿 PS5, lol. Don't kneecap yourself is the lesson here, kids. 😉

@RudeHero

I think in an ideal world Sony would like it to be all digital but in reality they would have a riot on their hands if they actually tried to go down that route.

Don't get me wrong, eventually gaming will end up that way but I think the PS6 may be a little too soon to get away with it.

If it doesn't have a built-in disc drive option it will 100% have a drive that can be added on for those that want one (in my opinion)

I appreciate the store sales, some bargains to be had.

@Horizon_Rover It ridiculous you cant preorder these things free money.

It's available here in Ukraine on every corner for $140.

I gave up and switched completely to Digital. Sold my disks and got most of them on sale on PS Store

No one at Sony could have predicted this.

@Oram77 same here. Got my hands on one in december. Then that hurdle is out of the way for when I decide to cave in and buy the pro.

I ordered one when I pre-ordered my Pro and got it in two days, where it sat on a shelf for a month waiting for something to plug into so I guess I got lucky by thinking ahead in that regard.

One thing I have found interesting where physical retailers are concerned, is that I will walk into a store, see systems sitting on the shelf, but if I try the website, it will say none are available for pickup. It almost makes me think they are delisting things from their website to frustrate scalpers. It also frustrates anybody who wants to check inventory before walking into a store, so I don't know if it's for the better or worse.