Buying a PlayStation 4 – is that (still) possible in 2022?

Anyone who finds the PS5 hunt exhausting hasn’t tried the next level of difficulty: buying a PlayStation 4.

Sony Interactive sold more than one and a half million consoles in the German-speaking countries during the PlayStation 4 peak phase – per year. After the PlayStation 5 launch in November 2020, the demand for the discontinued model collapsed almost vertically: in the months before the first PS5 birthday – i.e. between April and October 2021 – there were just 85,000 units in Germany, Austria and the Switzerland went over the counter.

The generation change is therefore in full swing: old console out, new console in.

But the PlayStation 4 is far from being old-fashioned. On the contrary: The PS4 continues to roll off the assembly line in Asia. In January of this year, Bloomberg claims to have learned that Sony Interactive is not only keeping the PlayStation 4 on the market longer than planned, but is also increasing production by one million units a year. Reason: the lack of high-tech chips for the PlayStation 5, which lead to a “limited availability of goods” would have led.

Which in turn is a moderate understatement: To this day, the PS5 can at best be ordered online at intervals of several weeks or reserved in stationary stores. Example Amazon: The market leader only had the console in its range twice in 2022 for what felt like 15 minutes – in mid-January and at the end of March.

Nevertheless, the situation is as follows: The PlayStation 4 is almost impossible to get on the German market – namely neither at Amazon* still at MediaMarkt* still at GameStop still at the Sony factory outlet PlayStation Direct. A PlayStation 4 with 500 GB is listed there for €299.99 – but it has been for months “not available”. Even more: If you want to have a PlayStation 4 in its original packaging, you pay as much on Amazon or Ebay as you would for a PlayStation 5, which can easily process existing PS4 games.

The manufacturer – i.e. Sony Interactive Entertainment Deutschland GmbH – is also unable to provide any usable information on request as to where and how a PlayStation 4 could be organized at the list price in spring 2022.

There can be many reasons to buy a supposedly outdated console like the PlayStation 4 – for example:

• Not everyone can and wants to invest €500, €600, €700 upwards to treat themselves to a PS5 including the associated peripherals (additional controller, camera, charging station, etc.) and software.
• As a second or youth room console, a PS4 continues to serve well.
• And as long as the PS5 isn’t powered by a large-screen 4K TV, PS4 games still look great, especially since even novelties like Elden ring, Horizon: Forbidden West or Gran Turismo 7 are available for PlayStation 4 – not to mention perennial favorites like Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto 5, The Last of Us Part 2, Spider-Man or FIFA 22.

Unlike its competitor Microsoft, Sony Interactive has refrained from positioning an inexpensive console in the sub-€300 league – i.e. in a segment served by the Nintendo Switch and the Xbox Series S. The cheapest entry into the PlayStation ecosystem is currently a PS5 Digital Edition for €399, but this has been available since the beginning of the year at the latest still harder to get than the €499 BluRay model.

So that leaves the PS4 used market – and here the selection is inevitably huge because of the generation change mentioned: Alone on platforms like eBay* or rebuy* There are hundreds of auctions and buy it now offers at favorable conditions.

Incidentally, Sony itself has denied the rumored PS4 setting, albeit with the handbrake on: There were never any plans to retire the console early. Nonetheless, nothing of the supposed increase in capacity has hit the market so far. There could be new indications in mid-May – when the Sony Group’s business figures were presented.