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The story
It has come to light that Sony is running a campaign to buy back used PS5 consoles for up to ¥63,000, provided they are in good condition and come with their original accessories. The campaign requires at least two controllers, and appears aimed at capturing buyers who want an affordable PS5 ahead of GTA6’s November 19 release, following a string of price hikes that have pushed up the price of new units. On 5ch’s hardware/industry (“geha”) board, reactions came from every angle — concerns that the move could shrink GTA6’s pool of potential buyers, pointed comparisons to Xbox (which PlayStation loyalists once mocked for running a similar program), and comparisons with Nintendo.
It has come to light that Sony is running a campaign to buy back used PS5 consoles for up to $400 — roughly ¥63,000 in Japanese yen. The buyback amount varies depending on the console’s condition and included accessories, but if conditions are met, it could exceed what retailers offer for trade-ins.
PS5’s retail price has kept climbing after repeated price hikes, and for users considering a purchase ahead of GTA 6’s November 19 release, the console’s price itself has become an obstacle.
Buying back PS5 consoles for up to ¥63,000, with a minimum of two controllers required
Source: sumahodigest.com / Original article here
What people said
Guess I just won't bother selling then.
Padding the install-base numbers, lol?
Parts are so expensive now that they probably don't even want to keep making these or raising prices further, so they're trying to get people who own a PS5 but aren't using it to sell it, so it ends up in the hands of someone who actually wants one.
They were trashing Microsoft for doing exactly this.
So predictable.
Original-model units might, but I bet they'll lowball the offer.
So the idea is: sell your base PS5 to fund a PS5 Pro?
Is the base PS5 version of GTA6 really that bad?
Didn't PlayStation fanboys absolutely clown on them for it?
Are PS fanboys gonna defend this one?
Same as always.
They mocked Achievements too, before copying them.
They also said Xbox was the weird one for having a different button layout.
Looking back now, all that disc hand-off showboating is pretty funny.
Didn't PlayStation fanboys absolutely clown on them for it?
How are PS fanboys going to excuse this one?
Guess they'll just fall back on the usual cult mentality of 'whatever SIE does is automatically right'?
Being serious for a second, I don't think anyone actually remembers the Xbox thing.
For what it's worth, I don't know about it either, and I've never even heard of it.
At this point this is basically the Wii U.
All they ever think about is ripping people off — that's Nintendo for you.
Rude.
They're selling you a 512GB SD card for about ¥30,000 — how generous of them.
Is it really 'whatever SIE does is automatically right'?
That's a straight-up cult.
At this point it's basically a cult.
If someone owns a PS5 but hasn't touched it, and was thinking 'GTA6's coming out, I've got a PS5 right here, maybe I'll give it a shot' — if Sony's offering a high buyback price, wouldn't they just think 'might as well sell it' and bail instead?
Exactly.
Anyone who absolutely wants to play GTA on PlayStation probably already owns one.
Getting them to sell it off just turns the overall count negative.
Depends on how much traction this gets, but I wonder if they ran some kind of pointless comparison like: 'which group is bigger — people paying close to $800 all-in to play GTA6, or people who dig out an old console and pay $100 to play it?'
so they're probably just funneling that console toward a new customer instead.
They've been doing this overseas for years — reselling used units and counting them toward install-base numbers.
Then maybe they should pull out of the gaming business, lol.
Meanwhile the Switch 2 draws way more power than any comparison.
Talk about a difference.
And yet they're ignoring what users actually want and forcing the disc drive into extinction.
All they care about is money.
So doesn't that make Sony — which is scrapping physical media altogether — an even worse money-grubbing company?
Background and key points of this discussion
Since launch, the PS5 has gone through multiple price increases across different regions, and in North America the console’s price has kept climbing, partly due to tariffs. GTA6, after repeated delays, is now scheduled for release on November 19, 2026, and this buyback program was announced right before that date. A manufacturer buying back used units directly — rather than through a retailer’s trade-in program — is an unusual move, and the thread was split: some read it as ‘a way to funnel idle consoles from existing owners to new buyers,’ while others worried that ‘people who would have bought a used PS5 specifically for GTA6 might just sell their old one and walk away instead, shrinking demand rather than growing it.’ Note that the claim that Xbox ran a similar buyback program in the past comes from posters’ recollections on 5ch, and this article has not independently verified it.
※This article is an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, “geha”) thread “Sony Buying Back Used PS5s for Up to ¥63,000 — Targeting Users Who Want an Affordable Console Ahead of GTA 6’s Release?” on 5ch.
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