The President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), Jim Ryan, announced in a blog statement that they will be increasing the price of the PS5. The price increase will affect seven markets worldwide, except the US.
According to Ryan, the difficult decision to increase the prices for the PS5 comes from “the current global economic environment and its impact on SIE’s business”. However, they remain dedicated to “[improve] the PS5 supply situation”.
PS5 price increase announced for Europe, United Kingdom, Japan, China, Australia, Mexico, and Canada https://t.co/YTpK7UxMDl pic.twitter.com/2kK2gbypPF
— Gematsu (@gematsu) August 25, 2022
Increased retail price retail
Tech companies have been pushed to the wall for the past few years with unprecedented chip shortages. Buying a brand new PS5 is also difficult due to the ongoing global short supply and high demand for it.
Generally, the price increase is not a popular move across the electronic industry especially when a product is in the middle of its lifecycle. However, factors such as the constantly increasing costs and sales decline also became reasons to Sony’s decision on the PS5 price hike.
Despite the shortage and the economic situation around the world, Piers Harding-Rolls from Ampere Analysis predicts that increasing the price of PS5 by 10% on average will not affect sales in general.
Analyst Predicts PS5 Price Increase 'Will Have Minimal Impact on Sales of the Console'https://t.co/655ByyChgS pic.twitter.com/fOwUtT2np0
— VGChartz (@VGChartz) August 25, 2022
The following markets will have the new recommended retail prices for the disc version:
- Europe: €549.99
- UK: £479.99
- Japan: JP¥60,478
- China: CN¥4,299
- Australia: AU$799.95
- Mexico: MX$14,999
- Canada: CA$649.99
Apart from Japan which will have the new prices effective on September 15, 2022, the prices are effective immediately.
How competitors are reacting
In light of Sony’s price hike for the PS5, Microsoft responded via Windows Central and said they do not intend to change their prices anytime soon for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Nintendo also takes a similar stance and has stated that they do not have plans to increase their hardware’s pricing.
Photo credit: The feature image has been taken by Roman Kosolapov.
Sources: Jim Ryan (PlayStation Blog) / Piers Harding-Rolls (Ampere Analysis) / Jez Corden (Windows Central) / Tom Phillips (Eurogamer)
