If you’re still playing games on a PlayStation 4, the upcoming $700 PS5 Pro might be the right opportunity to upgrade. Or you could get a base PS5 used from Sony for just half the price. A new refurbished program from the console manufacturer is helping to unofficially cut prices on the existing hardware.
While fans were busy gawking at the enhanced graphics and price tag of the PS5 Pro yesterday, Sony also quietly debuted used consoles on its PlayStation Direct store. As spotted by Wario64 just ahead of Mark Cerny’s technical presentation, the refurbished units sell for $100 less than their new counterparts. A used PS5 with a disc drive is $400 instead of $500, and an all-digital one is $350 instead of $450 (the price of the slim which replaced the launch edition).
While the refurbished units might have scratches or dents, they’re supposed to function fine internally, with Sony providing 12-month manufacturer’s warranties on them. They’re not technically available to buy just yet—the listings still have “Coming soon” on them—but for someone looking to finally take the plunge four years into the current console cycle, it’s not a bad deal, especially when you consider the $350 model is half the price of a new PS5 Pro launching in November.
Sony has pushed some pretty good PS5 deals from time to time as it tries to hit ambitious sales goals for the console, but there’s never been an actual price cut for the hardware, which is very unusual compared to the PS4 and PS3 generations. As a result, as recently as earlier this year there were roughly 50 million players still using PS4s. And even though Sony’s games are no longer cross-gen on the older machines, perennial blockbusters like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Madden NFL 25 are still available on the last-gen consoles.
Sony is also selling refurbished DualSense controllers, though at $65 that’s a much less appealing value proposition. Up until recently you could get a new one for just $70, though this week the company quietly raised the price to $75.
