If there’s something certain about current-gen consoles like the PlayStation 5, is that their price has never been stable. First, it was the chip shortage. Now that scalping seems to be less common, other woes are at play, causing Sony to raise the price of its console in some markets.
Sony has announced that the PlayStation 5 will see a major price increase in a handful of markets. Most notably, the price hike will impact Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Australia, Mexico, and the company’s home market of Japan. Across these markets, both the Digital Edition and the version with a disc drive are going up between 5% to 12.5% in price.
The reasoning behind that decision? Sony says that high global inflation rates, adverse currency trends, and, in general, increasingly challenging economic circumstances forced it to bump prices up.
It also seems to be alone in this decision, at least for now. Both Microsoft and Nintendo, its main competitors, reassured customers that their prices wouldn’t go up in the hours following the news. Microsoft said to Windows Central that “our Xbox Series S suggested retail price remains at $299 (£250, €300) the Xbox Series X is $499 (£450, €500).” Nintendo, on the other hand, confirmed to Eurogamer that it had “no plans to increase the trade price of its hardware.”
It’s important to note that the console’s prices are not going up in the United States just yet, where the digital and disc drive-equipped versions are $399 and $499, respectively. However, inflation and other economic woes have also heavily impacted the US. Other pieces of hardware, like Meta’s Quest 2, have gone up in price stateside as a result. So while prices aren’t going up right now for American folks, we can’t throw that possibility out of the window.
Sony’s price hikes are effective immediately everywhere except in Japan, where the new prices will go into effect on September 15th.
Source: Sony, Windows Central, Eurogamer
