Sony has done just what everyone was waiting for, and expected, revealing the price and release date for its PlayStation 5 consoles. The standard PS5 will cost $499 or £449, while the PS5 Digital Edition comes in at $399 or £359, and pre-orders for both start from tomorrow. 

Best games console 2020: Should you get an Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo Switch? photo 6
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition

A disk-less version of the PS5. 

The release date is slightly more complicated, with the US and a selection of countries getting them first, on November 12, before it reaches the rest of the world, including the UK on November 19. The full list getting the PS5 earlier is: America, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. 

That price is something that we've been waiting weeks to find out, especially since Xbox went ahead and confirmed its own recently, and it's about what we expected. The standard PS5, with its disc drive, is a little pricier than the Xbox Series X in some territories, but not by as much as some analysts had feared.

The Digital Edition of the PlayStation 5, by contrast, is a good chunk more expensive than the Xbox Series S, but unsurprisingly so, since it doesn't have any shortcuts or hardware differences to cut costs with beyond that missing disc drive. 

As mentioned above, Sony has also now followed up to confirm that pre-orders for the consoles are imminent, starting as early as tomorrow depending on the retailer. 

It's far too early to tell how Sony's more expensive price point affects its performance with the PS5 this holiday season, but it's got the advantage of an arguably more impressive slate of games coming to the console, including some juicy exclusives that its latest showcase made clear.