Buy a PS5 before GTA VI, or wait for Black Friday?

The short answer

If you want to play GTA VI in its first week, buy before 19 November and accept that you are paying for the timing. If you can wait eight days, Black Friday is the better bet — but on the retailer’s price, not on the list price, and nobody can promise you a figure in advance.

Two dates, eight days apart

GTA VI releases on Thursday 19 November. Black Friday falls on Friday the 27th. The whole decision sits in those eight days.

Demand runs the wrong way for a buyer: a console being pulled along by a huge release is not one shops feel pressure to discount. Expect what appears to be bundles and older stock rather than across-the-board cuts.

What a PS5 lists for right now

Since 2 April 2026 the official UK prices are these, each £90 above what they were:

• PS5 with disc drive — £569.99 (was £479.99)
• PS5 Digital Edition — £519.99 (was £429.99)
• PS5 Pro — £789.99 (was £699.99)

The list price is not what you pay: it is the number discounts are measured from. What it costs today is only on the seller’s page, and it moves week by week — which is why there is no “today’s price” written here. A number frozen in a guide is wrong by Thursday.

So what actually moves

In 2026 the list price went up, not down. Waiting has not been rewarded by the manufacturer, only now and then by retailers.

• Retailer discounts and bundles are where any saving comes from, and they vary shop by shop.
• A bundle is only a deal if you wanted the game in it. Otherwise it is a higher price with a gift attached.
• A “was” price here is not fixed to a thirty-day window, so the percentage alone tells you very little. Check what the console has actually sold for in recent weeks.

Sources and method

The list prices are Sony’s official UK figures effective 2 April 2026, each checked on more than one independent outlet. Prices on a shop page change constantly: always check the final one, delivery included, at the moment you buy.

There is no five-year chart here. We have one for Italy, built on verified Italian list prices; the same series in pounds we do not have, and drawing it approximately would be inventing exactly the thing this guide teaches you to spot.