SONY PlayStation 4 is back on sale after a long absence. Is it worth buying a previous generation console?

The worn-out old-generation console, loved by millions, is slowly becoming a thing of the past, and yet PS4 has reappeared on sale in Polish electronics stores. Has Sony stopped producing this console already? Is it worth buying a PlayStation 4 or is it better to choose another more modern console? How do prices compare to the competition in a world of ubiquitous inflation? We answer these and other questions in the following three paragraphs.

More than half a year ago, the PlayStation 4 console was unavailable, today it returns to store shelves. Its price can surprise, and yet the classic sells. But is it really a good choice in 2023?

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PS4 consoles appeared on store shelves in Polish electromarkets, although everyone already thought that this console was gone for good. Last year, numerous information appeared on the web announcing the end of PS4 production, but they turned out to be exaggerated. Because the manufacturer really only finished making the sale of these devices public, ending the report with 117.2 million units sold. Unofficial sources reported that Sony originally planned to end production in 2022. However, probably due to the limited availability and high prices of the more modern PlayStation 5, Sony decided to extend the life of the old generation until the end of 2024. However, is it worth buying a 10-year-old console in 2023?

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Despite everything, Sony continues to vigorously support the eighth generation of consoles. We continue to see new titles appearing on both PS4 and PS5. However, does this mean that the comfort of the game is the same? Sorry but no. The old console is slowly no longer able to cope with modern games. Developers are slowly noticing this and stop issuing updates and suspend the development of games for older consoles, such as our home studio CD Projekt RED in the case of Cyberpunk 2077 and its add-on Phantom Liberty. By contrast, games from the PS4 era literally come back to life on PS5, and the big advantage of fast SSDs, a more powerful AMD APU and quite well-executed backward compatibility. In addition, the current price of PlayStation 4, which can cost as much as a few years ago, the variant with the note PRO, is also not encouraging. Prices on the shelves range from PLN 1549 to even PLN 1789 depending on the set. Yes, unfortunately, we will not get a “bare” console, just like PlayStation 5.

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However, for similar money, you can buy the Xbox Series S, which definitely presents more news. A faster APU processor based on the Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architecture, an NVMe SSD (albeit with a small capacity), support for modern technologies, e.g. Ray Tracing and the unmistakable Xbox Game Pass and a guarantee of support for the latest games. They undoubtedly speak in the direction of Microsoft hardware. However, if you are a supporter of consoles from the Japanese or want to have even better graphics, it remains to hunt for the successor of the title console in a good promotion. As we wrote here, the availability of PS5 is slowly but steadily improving. So to sum up, what is the purpose of releasing old consoles back on the market? We can only assume that Sony wanted to compete with the Xbox Series S console with this move.

Source: Sony, PurePC