Sony's detachable disc drive accessory for the PS5 Slim and upcoming PS5 Pro consoles is reportedly selling out after the announcement that the Pro variant of the console will not feature one out of the box. The optional optical drive will be a necessary purchase for gamers who have a library of physical games and movies, though that might be easier said than done with rising reports of stock shortages ahead of the PS5 Pro's launch in November.
Stock for the 4K Blu-ray drive, which retails for £100 / $80 / AU$159, is drying up in the US according to gaming publication IGN, with retailers such as Amazon, Target and Best Buy all showing as sold out. Here in the UK, the disc drive is sold out on Amazon and PlayStation Direct (Sony's official online retailer for the gaming platform), so we could be seeing a similar phenomenon on this side of the pond.
Furthermore, listings for the accessory have begun cropping up on the likes of eBay with inflated price tags; we've spotted listings with prices from around £150 to £250, which is extremely discouraging. Questions are beginning to arise as to whether Sony has shot itself in the foot (proverbially, of course) by not including a disc drive on its £700 / $700 / AU$1200 console, though only time will tell if it can rectify this issue by producing more drives or addressing scalpers head-on by implementing a "one-per-customer" system akin to what was in place during the early days of the PS5.
While the disc drive isn't an essential accessory for using the PS5 Pro, those who have an existing collection of games on disc will be put at a disadvantage, and it removes the PS5's dual function as a games console and 4K Blu-ray player. This is, of course, our main concern, as losing AV functionality while retailing at a much higher price is a recipe for disaster in our books, especially if you can't buy the part that restores said functionality.
Shortages of the PS5 disc drive are echoing the launch of the original version of the console, with limited stock being released in waves from 2020 to 2022. We sincerely hope that Sony isn't in for another botched PlayStation launch that's plagued with hardware shortages, but only time will tell if this issue will have an impact on the PS5 Pro overall.
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