In a nutshell: Sony has introduced a console rental service in the UK that allows gamers to lease a PlayStation 5, PlayStation VR 2 headset, or a PlayStation Portal. Customers can choose from 12-, 24-, or 36-month terms for cheaper rates or go with a monthly rolling plan that can be canceled at any time.
Pricing starts at £6.49 ($8.37) per month for a PlayStation Portal remote player and scales up to £18.98 ($24.43) for a PS5 Pro. The PlayStation VR2, which recently dropped from $549 down to $399, can come home for £18.49 ($23.84) per month.
Note that these rates only apply to 36-month leases, and you will pay more per month when opting for 12- or 24-month plans. The month-to-month option is even more expensive: £35.59 ($45.89) a month for the PS5 Pro, for example.
At the end of the lease, you can either return the hardware to end the contract or keep paying monthly to hang on to it.
Customers pay nothing out of pocket up front and are free to return their hardware within 14 days if not happy. Orders are shipped overnight and should arrive the next day at no extra cost. All leases are managed by UK rental agency Raylo, and applying will not impact your credit rating.
You'll no doubt want to crunch the numbers before committing to ensure a rental makes financial success as there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to something like this.
For example, maybe you are a grandparent and plan to have your grandchild spend the summer with you. In that instance, renting a PS5 for a few months would be cheaper than buying one outright only for it to collect dust starting in the fall. Conversely, a diehard gamer that plans to build a serious library of PS5 titles would likely come out ahead by owning rather than renting a console.
A similar service from one of Japan's largest video game retailers has already reached capacity.
Image credit: Charles Sims
PlayStation 5 rental program for UK gamers starts at £11 a month
