PS5 Suddenly a Hot Product in Japan, But as a Rental

Mad how things go with PlayStation offerings. 99% of people thought the Portal, the Edge and the rental service were clearly terrible decisions… and then once the data is accrued, all three are demonstrable successes beyond even Sony’s expectations. Just goes to show that while we may be the hardcore, we know very little about the masses and their wants and needs.

Makes sense. There's so few games worth playing you can get through them all with a rental.

I created a shortage by renting all PS5s in my town so I can rent them to others for double price.

@graymamba It's "vocal internet minority", not "99% of people".

@SelinaInTheOubliette I remember renting games out too. Even before blockbuster the local video shops would sometimes have a small selection of megadrive/SNES games.
I even rented out a second ps1 and two copies of doom once so we could try it multiplayer. Which was awesome at the time.

@Czar_Khastik GENIUS

It's cheaper a ps5 is nearly equivalent to the rent price of a 2 bedroom apartment over there if not more now with the last price hike so renting it is cheaper and will let the person decide if it's worth enough to buy

@Czar_Khastik bro that's some capitalist Villain ***** right there and if I could I'd do it too 😅

@Czar_Khastik 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@nocdaes stole the words right from me 😂 this ain’t a bad idea for the MidStation 5

That rental in the UK is genuinely one of the stupidest things I've seen. Why anyone would rent a console for 36 months which ends up being more expensive than the actual console then have to give it back is beyond me.

@graymamba to be fair, with the portal I was on board straight away. I live in a house with 5 other people and the TV is regularly in use (when we'renot out doing ither things), so I only got a few hours per week to play. Since having the portal I'm able to get at least a couple of hours per day, so I'm playing a lot more than I have in years

@Andy22385 either 1) people are stupid, 2) it makes it affordable…

@Andy22385 Exactly, especially when you can pay one up 0 percent interest at Argos.

@nomither6 right as PC gaming continues to grow in Japan and it is. The PS5 will just be a closed box PC with timed exclusives. Thats a harder sell then what it was in consoles past. They will rent them and play the few games they want while buying Switch and PC’s and then realize they don’t need a console when they fully adopt waiting for the PC title. Which that window will continue to shrink as they push more live service games.

@Jrs1 renting out things used to be huge, in theory it suits some people especially the less well off. The 36 month contract part makes that particular one seem a bit unattractive though.
Edit : and I'm assuming that it's probably got lower credit rating requirements than places like Argos.

Playstation ain't doing too bad over in Japan anyway, 7 million in one region is nothing to laugh at especially with 2-3 years of life cycle left. If anything Microsoft need to do this as well as their sales are truly shocking, and not just in Japan.

It kind of feels like console rentals (currently) are an extension of life in general. More people are renting a roof over their head because owning has become so expensive, companies notice that and realize they can rent their products too. Done right and fair it makes sense, but at a high price it's just taking advantage. I see why it's working in Japan. Friends who are over there teaching English have mentioned how popular console rental is, even TV and appliance rental.

It comes down to wanting to play a couple of limited titles, space and money. By space I mean they might have to give up their lease on a place and if they bought a lot of big appliances/items it's a pain to move them, and that's even if the next place is big enough to house all of those items. One friend pretty much bought nothing while she was there and anything she did buy she immediately sent it home because she had no space for it. I know one of her students rented a PS5, it probably was for Monster Hunter.

Edit: I asked for more context. Housing is getting so expensive that people are moving away from the central locations. There's been an increase in rent, if she contests it then it has to go through the courts. So what's happening is that a lot of people in those central areas are having to be more cautious with their spending. Apparently that's where the majority of the console rentals are happening. She said you're more likely to buy consoles/etc if you are living further out and commuting into the cities, that's about a ninety minute commute sometimes more. She said people rent everything from furniture to electronics and that in her last apartment she had to provide everything from the stove to the toaster.

@Balosi I lived through the age of coin slot tv"s lol. The Argos pay up scheme doesnt have any interest if its payed up within 12 months.

@UltimateOtaku91 the difference is MS can do 40-45 million in console sales cause their games are on all platforms and they own games that do billions in dollars. Sony at least the way the business is ran at the moment needs 100 plus million consoles to make the return on investment worth its while. MS Sony and Nintendo are now running very very different business models. Not to say any of them are in trouble cause all 3 are making huge amounts of cash. Sony does ok in Japan but the number will continue to likely shrink as Japan is now a huge growing PC space and we know Switch 2 and Mobile will do huge numbers in the region. However they are growing in other regions so i don’t think Sony cares that much about a slight decrease in Japan.

@Dodoo yeah but you can buy it on Internet free credit with many different outlets and get to keep the console at the end.

How is there not an article regarding ps showcase rumours @rumourfanatics

@Drago201 show me the place where I can rent a 2 bedroom for the price of a ps5. Hell I’d even go ps5 pro price if it has two bathrooms too

My first console was an NES. I got it as a birthday present when I was 6 or 7. I loved that thing. When I heard about PSX, I really wanted to get it, but my parents refused to buy it for me. Instead, they agreed for me to rent it for a week (if memory serves).

I ended up playing a game called Cardinal Syn and fell in love with it. I couldn't believe how realistic the graphics looked. I thought we had reached the peak of what was possible. But then I had to return it. I ended up making a deal with my dad that if I could get a scholarship that would pay for it, he'd buy it for me. Thankfully, a year later I did and that's how I got my first Playstation. It's one of the fondest memories I have from my childhood and why Playstation will only have a special place in my heart. All thanks to the rental service.

@Andy22385 it's simple. They can't afford it. Just like how people buy their smartphone through a contract and end up paying more in the end.

@EfYI students for one. There are a lot of people who just can't afford to buy a new console outright so these kind of schemes are accessible for them and at least there is an option no matter how deplorable others may find it.

@naruball I rented my megadrive from the local video rental shop for a week and I played shadow dancer all week..I saved up and bought one which I eventually traded in for a snes which I kept up until I bought the PlayStation. Being able to rent something for very,very little kept me in the game for the 7 or so months it took me to save on my very paltry wage.

@HRdepartment he has quite evidently never been to the UK and if he has I shudder to think what hell hole he rented for that price..

@HRdepartment in Japan not the US or the uk ***** like 2500 in these places

@Northern_munkey which made it all the more memorable and special, right? When I had the money and could easily afford a ps2, I didn't appreciate it as much.

This sounds like the 90's again... I remember (in Australia which was struggling with a huge recession that wiped a lot of people out with 17% interest rates)... rental companies were all the rage (which later morphed into rent-to-own deals). The point was that a large number of people were being forced into costly rental agreements, because they lacked money to afford anything outright. That was a terrible time here (even as a teenager/young-adult growing up in that time seeing how much even people from 'good families' suddenly struggled).

In some ways, these deals can be quite good - unless they're fixed (edit: long) term. As for the UK's 36 month rental term (mentioned above by @Andy22385) that's criminal. How is that a rental? Do you rent houses for 36 months? At the end of the day, you don't get to keep anything; and this no longer is a rental scheme but financial indentured servitude of the poor.

The one thing I'd say - and perhaps I didn't understand the article writing - 400x5 = 2000-ish (even as a minimum) units for rent in Japan. Compared to a population of 100+ million, I wouldn't count this in the same league as the previous rental dependence. And I don't think this has anything to do with alternative 'sales' models due to poor actual sales.

Rented a lot of games as a kid, but never a console. That said, in this world economy it’s understandable. A lot has changed for many folks since 2020.

Plus, in generations past the costs of consoles dropped by mid-Gen and I doubt we’ll ever see that again. Which is a crying shame.

@naruball I didn't really like my ps2. There was something about it that just didn't click with me. I traded it in and got the OG xbox black brick and I loved it. Bought the 360 and felt that I'd been sold a lemon as it just kept dying so I bought a ps3 and I've never looked back. The 360 comes out for a bit of guitar hero and that's about it. Ps5 all the way...

@naruball again, they could buy it on finance through a store and actually keep the console at the end unlike this offer

@Andy22385 fair enough

Come to think of it, a rental service would be awesome tbh. Sometimes you want to play a game but have no console. Well, rent the entire system and game. What a wonderful idea to those who simply can't buy it or won't buy it because it's not worth for a game or 2 you really wanna play. I think this should be a thing but of course at a reasonable price with options of 7 days or 14 days rent etc. No small prints with hidden charges, just good ol' rent, play & give back.

You like it then but it..... Almost like a try before you buy.