Sony Expands Its PS5 Console Rental Service to the UK

If you’re going to rent a PSVR2 you better hope they deep clean that thing before putting it on your head 😄

Interesting though, be curious to see how well it does. I wonder if they offer the option to keep what you rent after a set period of time.

Would be far better if they did Xbox all access type thing that was interest free over two years and then the consoles was yours. It included 2 years GPU as well, so Sony could do the same with their PSN.

Interesting Xbox has now stopped this last week in the UK.

@OldGamer999 Agreed, you could probably pay one up for the same monthly cost, im sure EE does that kinda thing.

I can’t see disc drive here!!)

As with all leases, obviously worse than outright ownership long-term: I saw Pro offers for £660, and 36 months payment amount to more than that.

But can be very attractive for short-term power gaming sessions of a couple of months.

Also, do they require deposit or something?

Oh, here in my hometown there were some PS4 & PS5 rental service with cost 20K to 45K IDR per hour.
The games are already pre-installed (digital games) with very few variety since here in my country a lot of peoples just playing too mainstream games.

Sorry but you've got to be out of your mind to do this, those 36 month prices are basically what the hardware is worth but then you give it back.

There are many better ways of getting these consoles, at least Xbox did that all access thing. I wouldn't advise anyone go anywhere near this

I can see a point to this if you want to try out a console etc for a month or 2 to see if you want to buy one, but other than this the rental company will always be the winner, or they wouldn't be in business.

Renting a portal is a good idea. Just to check if your connection makes it worthwhile.

I can see myself using it, but what the hell is that pricing for psvr2 lol. In general, it could be useful for lots of people, 20e a month for a sub if you cancel one of your subscription elsewhere? Why not, but then add ps plus on top and it becomes 50e a month

This is such a bad idea. If you could keep the device after paying the total amount equivalent to retail price (or slightly more), it would be fine. But as it is, it just doesn't make sense.

@KoopaTheGamer it worked that way when the interest rates were close to zero. Unlikely offers like that will return anytime soon.

Not for me thanks.

You have to wonder what happens when someone uses the service to grab a console, and then leaves the country or simply vanishes. It might sound like a lot of effort to go through but it's done with loans all of the time and unless there's a travel ban issued due to debt then there's not much that can be done. With technology there are all kinds of fail-safes. I'm pretty sure Sony can brick it through the serial number, and if the ISP were onboard (subpoena) you could in theory track it through the MAC address? I'm very curious how services like that go about preventing such situations.

These prices are ridiculous.

It's better to save money and buy a used PS5 for £300 at most.

Many years ago, my parents rented their TV and VCR, and it used to be common for people to rent other electronics as well. This all died out with rising average wages and generally cheaper consumer goods making it less and less necessary.

So, I doubt there will be a huge market for this scheme, but I can see various use cases - e.g. rent a PS5 for 6 months, play all the games you want and then give it back. But as a long-term proposition, I'm not sure many will want to overpay like this.

@carlos82 I agree it’s ridiculous and can’t see many people taking this up.

But people often do the same with cars etc.

Rental for VR is a great idea. Get it in people’s faces and you’ll sell a tonne of games…that price though.

Hope this comes to the U.S., since I really want a PS5 for Astro Bot, and basically nothing else lol

Reminds me of the good old days of renting a telly from Rumbelows.

However if I were to go down this route, I think I'd rather pick an agreement where you keep the item at the end of the lease rather then have to give it up.

PSVR2 is more that PS5 Pro despite now being about half the price to buy.

@Enigk probably for the deep clean it needs before the next rental.

@Jrs1
If I was in charge of Sony I would do the same as Xbox all access at the main retailers like Game, Argos and Smyths toys.
Main reason PS5 is about 5 million behind in Europe against PS4 same time line and the gap increases every month, and so more sales would be great for Sony and for many more reasons as well.

@Kienda Still seems like overkill as you could buy a new one and use for a few months and sell for probably less cost than as a rental for a few months.

@roe Over 36 months its about £650 for a pro. Won't the 6 be out in 3 years?

If I had no console and didn’t have £500, I’d be responsible and admit I can’t afford a frivolous toy and should save money in case the car or washing machine breaks down.

Because clearly the person is dangerously exposed to unplanned expenditure.

Alternatively I’d rather pay for GF Now and get a £2500 PC with far cheaper games (e.g. £40 for a Monster Hunter key) rather than a £500 console with £70 games that judder.

F-ing hell, what next, debit-card-operated PS5s? it reminds me of when Coin-operated TVs was a thing years ago.

My 2nd PS5 with disc-drive (son kidnapped the first one) was £344 from Music Magpie in 'Very Good' condition. Actually turned out to be in mint condition and even had an extra 1TB of extra storage (Seagate Firecuda) that someone had forgot or couldn't be bothered to remove!

There are plenty of 2nd hand PS5s out there for much cheaper than this rental lark; PS5s from people who a) used to cosset it before abandoning it for a Pro or b) sold it on because it was a unnecessary alleged upgrade over their PS4. Our local CEX is awash with them.

I could see this being useful if you just happened to be in the UK for a couple of months and wanted a PS5 for the period you were here, or if you just wanted to play one particular PS game and didn't want to purchase a PS5 just for that.
But these are pretty niche cases and in every other situation it seems less good value than just buying one on a credit card or instalment plan.
I'm not sure why they're bothering with this, honestly.

Paying monthly to rent a controller I think really emphasizes the current state of video game playing.🤑

Does Sony have as many first party PS5 exclusive games as it does the 5 pieces of hardware they are allowing you to rent? 😩

This would only make sense for short term rentals. Anyone looking at the 3 year option would do much better to explore buying the console on credit.

But to get hold of a device cheaply without a long term commitment, to blast through a particular game like GTAVI or something when it comes out, I can see there maybe being a market for something like this.

The 36 months option is an absolute con!
Do the maths.

So basically if you rent for 36 months, you will pay almost the full retail price of the console, then you have to give it back.

Just buy a console!
If you can't afford one outright, there's loads of 0% buy now pay later or 0% credit options available out there.

So you almost pay the entire price of the console over 36 months and you own nothing. You might as well buy it and sell it when you're done.

You know consoles are too expensive when they do stupid things like this, it's ok for impatient people but why wouldn't you just save up your money or at least have it like a mobile phone contract

@Enigk I agree with you. I think this whole rental thing is too expensive.

I was just thinking about the face grease those VR headsets must accumulate. Hehe

@Kienda I can only imagine people would only rent for a month or two at best. These are going to get passed around like crazy. They are going to be an absolute mess after 12 months.

@Dampsponge what if you're only interested in one exclusive that you really want to play, but don't want to buy yet another console. This would be perfect for them. Back when Microsoft games were actual exclusives, I'd happily rent an xbox to play Fable.

Would be good for those that just wanna play 1 game and return it after they're done.

Going in to this article I thought I'd hate the idea. But, thinking about it now, I see two opposing sides.

FOR:

• Usually before a new system comes out, I'll put £50 away each month for a year to offset the price. So, in this time where a lot of people would struggle to do that, having to not do that, and then instead just pay £20-ish a month for a console just isn't that bad an idea.
• £14 to try out a PS Portal for one month and see if I like it is a genuinely compelling concept.

AGAINST:

• Unlike a mobile phone contract, you don't own the device at the end of your contract.
• Because you don't own it, you can't sell it and get anything back.
• You can guarantee that someone will do this for a PS5 Pro, then sell it because they need money urgently, then not be able to pay the full price at the end of their 2-3 year contract. Where does that leave them? A small claims court? Bailiffs? Bankruptcy? Disaster.