Sony is renting out PS5 consoles for £11 a month in the UK

You can’t rent a copy of Astro Bot though (Sony)

Sony has brought its PlayStation 5 rental service to the UK, which offers temporary leases on consoles and other accessories like the PSVR2.

There’s no denying that the PlayStation 5, and consoles in general, are an expensive piece of hardware. Even at its cheapest, it costs £389.99 and that’s the version that comes without a disc drive, so you’re sacrificing the ability to play physical games.

The more powerful PS5 Pro is even costlier, at a whopping £700, which didn’t seem to hurt its launch but could be a contributing factor to its dwindling sales in the US.

Now Sony appears to be recognising that not everyone is able or willing to purchase a PlayStation 5, as it has established a new service here in the UK – one that lets you temporarily rent out the console.

How to rent a PlayStation 5 in the UK

The new rental service only went live this week on the PlayStation Direct website and applies to all models of the PlayStation 5, including the PS5 Pro.

The cheapest option is for the digital-only PlayStation 5, which comes with a single controller and, if you commit to a 36-month rental, is £10.99 a month. At a grand total of £395.64, that’s only slightly more expensive than buying the console outright.

There are options for a 24-month rental at £11.99 a month and a 12-month rental at £16.49 a month. Otherwise, a single month on its own costs £21.95.

Aside from all three PlayStation 5 models, the service is also offering leases on the PlayStation Portal handheld and PlayStation VR2 headset. Although both of these are clearly meant for established PlayStation 5 owners, since neither of them work without the console.

How much is the new PlayStation rental service in the UK?

The following items are what’s available for rental on the PlayStation service. For simplicity’s sake, we have listed how much they cost for a 36 month period, according to Sony’s website:

PlayStation 5 Pro console – £18.95 per month PlayStation 5 digital edition console – £10.99 per month PlayStation 5 console – £11.99 per month PlayStation 5 digital edition console with two DualSense controllers – £13.49 per month PlayStation 5 console with two DualSense controllers – £15.49 per month PlayStation Portal – £6.49 per month PlayStation VR2 Horizon Call Of The Mountain bundle – £19.99 per month PlayStation VR2 – £18.49 per month DualSense Edge controller – £7.49 per month

The service launched in Japan last week and has quickly proven very successful. According to Automaton, it’s currently fully booked across the whole country, thanks to the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds – where the series is exceedingly popular.

It’s a smart move by Sony, since even if the service doesn’t convince customers to fully invest in a PlayStation 5, it can still make extra money from more casual gamers. We’ll have to wait and see if this is has any major effect on console sales, for better or worse.

The one downside is that customers obviously have to purchase the games themselves. But it’s an ideal service for those who aren’t interested in long term commitments, like live service games, but are content to play through single-player titles like Spider-Man 2 or God Of War Ragnarök only once.

Are you tempted to rent a PlayStation 5? (Sony)

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