Sony is facing a wave of outrage. Social media is abuzz with harsh criticism of an offer to rent consoles. Initial accusations have been made that Sony is trying to rip off its fans.
Video game fans are not having an easy time of it at the moment. AI data centers and inflation are causing hardware prices to rise steadily. Just last year, for example, Sony raised the purchase price of the PlayStation 5 by 50 euros. Mind you, this was five years after the release of the current console generation.
The Japanese video game giant wants to make a virtue out of necessity. Instead of exclusively selling consoles, controllers, or VR headsets, Sony wants to offer its own products for rent under the name Flex. This model was rolled out on a trial basis in the United Kingdom last week—and enraged PlayStation fans worldwide.
This is Sony’s new rental model
But what is it actually about? With the Flex offers, interested parties can choose between different packages and rental periods. The cheapest console offer, a PlayStation 5 Digital Edition with 825 gigabytes of storage and a controller, is available from £9.95 per month, for example. However, this is only available if you sign a three-year rental contract. This results in a total cost of just under £360 (approximately €410).
If potential renters want more storage, a second controller, or the PlayStation 5 Pro, the costs increase. The same applies to shorter contract terms.
This is a common pricing structure. For example, £9.95 for a 36-month term becomes £10.49 for a 24-month contract, £14.59 for a 12-month agreement, and £19.49 if the contract can be terminated on a monthly basis.
Sony wants to rent at the purchase price
The crux of the matter is that once the contract has expired, customers must return the rented hardware to Sony. Sony has not considered the option of allowing customers to purchase the console for a residual amount. Given that the total cost is close to the purchase price of the console, this has not been well received.
There has been some sharp criticism of the company’s new approach, particularly on X. For example, from user ‘Nathan’. “Damn, that’s really macabre,” he comments in a post that now has almost 20 times as many likes as Sony’s Flex announcement.
The assessment is based on a calculation example for the PS5 with a drive, a controller, and one terabyte of storage: “There are options to rent a console indefinitely for £24.49 per month until you cancel, or for £11.59 for three years (meaning you pay £417 and then send it back). So you pay the full price for a PS5, but you can’t keep it.”
That’s not exactly true in euro terms. However, the identical model is actually available in the UK from £440. This means that the difference between the total rental price and the purchase price is £23, or the equivalent of two of the 36 monthly installments. This is unacceptable for many users, especially since additional costs for the PlayStation Plus online service are not included.
Criticism has an effect
Sony has already responded to the backlash regarding the purchase option. While there was initially no mention of a possible takeover of the rented device on the manufacturer’s website, there has now been an adjustment. “If you would like to purchase the device, please contact us to discuss the details,” it now says with regard to the end of the contract.
Of course, Sony’s adjustment does not guarantee that you will be able to purchase the rented console. However, the response at least represents a small victory for gamers, who are increasingly having to ask themselves what actually belongs to them.