When thePS5launched, it was impossible to get hold of. Scalpers had a field day using bots to skip online queues, and regular gamers were left out in the cold, without a spaceship to adorn their TV stand ahead of Christmas. Xboxes were slightly easier to find, but the PS5 was gold dust. It wastheconsole, it wastheChristmas present, and yet I couldn’t help but feel disappointed with mine.
I managed to get one through my phone contract provider, and happily playedMiles Moralesover the Christmas break. The story was great, and the biggest difference I noticed from playing Spider-Man on my PS4 was the feeling in the adaptive triggers as I swung around New York. It was a good time, but I couldn’t help but think would have been just as good on PS4. Then I turned myXboxon and played something on Game Pass.
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Over six months later, I playedRatchet & Clank: Rift Apart. It was good fun, although I wasn’t certain that the marketing lines were entirely true – I think a PS4 Pro could have handled those dimensional rifts, albeit not quite as smoothly as its successor. In between, I turned it on occasionally to play FIFA (adaptive triggers turned off) and had brief forays into classic PS4 games like The Last of Us, God of War, and Bloodborne. I also bounced off Returnal, but I can’t hold that against the console.
It was at about this point thatI decided to sell my PS5. It wasn’t a particularly difficult decision. There’s no need to have two current-gen consoles other than to play all of the exclusives – which I largely need in order to, you know, do my job – but when there were so few exclusives, what was the point? And if I’m choosing between one console that allows me to replay a bunch of last-gen games and one that includes nearly every one of its new releases on my monthly subscription plan, that syncs progress with my PC saves, and that had Halo Infinite on the horizon (oh how my excitement was misplaced), I’m choosing the Xbox.
I didn’t once regret my decision. While Xbox hasn’t had many notable exclusives since the ill-fated Halo, Pentiment and Ghostwire: Tokyo were both great. I missed God of War Ragnarok, but having not enjoyed the first instalment, I was fine skipping the bloated sequel for the time being.
On June 13, 2025, as I write this article, I’m starting to regret selling my PS5. Maybe I’ll rephrase that. I don’t regret selling it – what would be the point in keeping a £500 paperweight in my living room for two years? But I’m starting to wish I had one again.
Spider-Man 2 is releasing later this year, and fans are hoping it will improve on the first game in a number of ways. Get rid of the Mary Jane stealth sections (or give her something better to do), throw in Miles Morales’ storytelling, somehow revitalise a New York that we’ve swung through for dozens of hours now (maybe by moving beyond Manhattan), and you’ve got a winner. You’ve got it. I haven’t. Because I don’t have a PS5.
The same goes for Final Fantasy 16, another PS5 exclusive. I’m not a die hard fan of the series, but something about this game calls to me. Maybe it’s the fact that I work for a website full of series stans, maybe it’s because of the promise of medieval Kaiju battles, but I want in. £70 for a game may feel like a lot, but how about £570?
I’m not buying a whole console just to play one game, but will I fork out the cash to play two? Also no. I know I’m missing out, though, and it’s the first time I’ve felt this FOMO since the release of current-gen. If you’ve been on the fence about buying a PS5, now is the time to start saving. The console finally has exclusives, and the rest of us need to play vicariously through you.
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