PlayStation 5 Digital Edition is here — as a listing. The official Sony Center website ShopAtSC.com has put up the PS5 Digital Edition at Rs. 39,990 that will be available for pre-order starting Monday, May 17 at 12pm (noon). We still don’t technically have an India release date for the more affordable PS5, though a report claims that these pre-orders would be delivered by May 24. Last time around, Sony India opened PS5 pre-orders on January 12 but orders were only shipped out three weeks later on February 2. There seems to be a much quicker turnaround, which is naturally welcome. Still, it arrives over six months after the PS5 Digital Edition launched globally.
Of course, the bigger worry for many will be whether they can even get it delivered to their address given the essentials-only delivery policy that is currently in place in many states during the debilitating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Additionally, ShopAtSC is currently the only online store to list PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, with other online retailers informing Gadgets 360 that they haven’t heard from Sony India about it. IGN India, which also reported the May 24 delivery date, claims that the PS5 Digital Edition will “likely” be exclusive to ShopAtSC, but stops short of citing any reasons. Sony India had no comment.
This isn’t the first time PS5 Digital Edition has been spotted in India. Croma had it listed on its website for the longest time — it’s been taken down since — but that was merely a placeholder as the PlayStation 5 released in India back in February without the digital-only version. But then late on Tuesday, ShopAtSC put up a banner that revealed the PS5 Digital Edition would go up for sale for the first time in India on May 17 at 12pm. That banner was removed half a day later, and replaced with one for standard PS5 restocks, coming on that aforementioned date. Now, the PS5 Digital Edition is back.
ShopAtSC, Games The Shop, and Prepaid Gamer Card are currently the only online retailers to confirm that the PlayStation 5 will be back in stock in India on Monday. Though one would imagine that prominent retailers such as Amazon, Croma, Flipkart, Reliance Digital, and Vijay Sales — all of whom were involved with the first wave of PS5 pre-orders — will also be involved. It is advisable to stay clear of Reliance Digital though, given its reportedly frustrating track record.
For those wondering about the differences between the regular PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition, well, there isn’t much. Unlike the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X that have wildly varying internals, the two PS5 variants are the same inside — except for that 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray drive which the PS5 Digital Edition doesn’t have, hence the moniker. That means you have to download every game you want to play. And because of the lack of a disc drive, the PS5 Digital Edition is about 600g lighter and 12mm slimmer on one side.