Why Does The PlayStation 5 Pro Not Come With A Disc Drive And Vertical Stand?

If you bought a PlayStation 5, you might also own one of several essential gadgets for the console. However, if you purchased an original PS5, a vertical stand and disc drive are not among those items, because they came with the console. Why did Sony decide to remove them from the PS5 Pro? Because the company thought they were doing customers a favor.

Several years ago, IGN interviewed PlayStation Senior Principle Product Manager Toshi Aoki about the then-upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro. The interview had several key takeaways, but the most telling inclusion was Sony’s rationale for removing the disc drive and vertical stand and selling them separately. According to Aoki, it all came down to “giving players choices.” His position was that since some players have fully digital collections, taking the disc drive out of the console and giving players the “option” to add it later (for an extra $79 through the official PlayStation store) would provide better balance for the console’s “value proposition.” Somehow.

Fast forward several years, Sony has seemingly walked back that logic. You probably heard that the company is planning to shut down all disc manufacturing in 2028, exclusively selling digital copies through its own digital storefront and select retailers. This decision obviously goes against the very principle of “giving players choices,” since they won’t have a choice in how they buy games. It’s new digital copies or nothing. While the IGN interview mentions the negative reaction to the PS5 Pro and its lack of a disc drive and vertical stand, we can’t help but wonder if Sony would still plan to print physical discs if we had been more critical of the console back then.

Cutting costs, not corners

It’s easy to forget that when we buy game consoles, sometimes we purchase more than just the main platform and the controller bundled inside. Remember when the Xbox One released? The console cost $499 not because it was more powerful than the PlayStation 4 but because the package included a Kinect. Once Microsoft stopped making the Kinect and sold the console without that pack-in, the price dropped to $399. Now apply that logic to the PS5 Pro.

During the interview, Aoki implied that the PS5 Pro’s capabilities played a factor in its price. He specifically mentioned the PS5’s new Wi-Fi 7 module and additional terabyte of SSD space. While he didn’t say anything explicitly, Aoki implied the disc drive and vertical stand were removed to mitigate the cost of the other components — especially the 2TB drive. If upgrading an OLED Steam Deck’s SSD capacity from 512GB to 1TB increases the handheld’s price by $160, imagine what the PS5 Pro’s price might look <a href="https://comicvibe.com/15-tv-shows-to-watch-if-you-like-the-queens-gambit-2/” title=”15 TV Shows To Watch If You Like The Queen's Gambit”>like with its increased processing capabilities, additional 1TB of storage, and a built-in disc drive and optional stand.

On the other hand, if you accused Sony of removing the disc drive and vertical stand to charge players for “extras,” the math would be on your side. Just compare the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition to the Disc Edition. On the PlayStation store, these items are $599 and $649, respectively. That’s a $50 difference, yet as previously stated, a disc drive costs $79. This $29 difference lends credence to the theory that Sony is trying to nickel and dime customers, and that’s even before we take the vertical stand ($29 through the PlayStation store) into account.