It’s no secret that the global economy has been facing issues over the past several months, especially in the wake of tariffs affecting countries where consoles, GPUs, and other goods are manufactured. With that sense of inevitability and trepidation, Sony finally announced that the PS5 would see price increases in the United States due to a “challenging economic environment.”
The base PlayStation 5, previously $500, will cost $550 while the digital version moves from $450 to $500. The PS5 Pro, initially considered a ludicrous proposition at $700 (and only slightly less so after fans went hands-on), will cost $750. Remember all those memes about the Pro actually costing you $810 when you factored in the vertical stand and standalone disc drive? We’re now approaching the $900 range, somehow making a high-end PC look even more attractive.
If it’s any consolation, accessory prices remain unchanged, and Sony has “no other price changes to announce for additional markets.” Which sounds nice until you remember that it already increased the cost of the console and accessories in Japan for the second time just last year. Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and the Middle East also saw price increases last April. Some regions got away with the base console and PS5 Pro remaining the same price, and I honestly don’t see that lasting for long.
The customary practice is to ask, “What the hell, Sony?” When you consider that the PS5 shipped 80.3 million units as of June 30th, remaining the dominant current-gen console leader, it’s hard not to wonder why it needs the extra scratch. The answer doesn’t concern its current success but rather the future. After all, back in May, it estimated tariffs would cause a 100 billion Yen, roughly $650 million, impact on operating income.
President and CEO Hiroki Totoki broached the subject of shifting console production to the United States, even if prices didn’t increase. Whether that’s still a strategy or not, it will take time to set up and get rolling. It probably would make sense if Sony is expecting a long sales tail for the PS5, but more than anything, it could be preparation for the inevitable PS6 (which is very much in the works, if leaks are to be believed).
What’s left of my frustration turns to resignation when considering that Sony was the last console manufacturer to fold. Nintendo delayed Switch 2 pre-orders until it could announce new prices for accessories, with no guarantee that this would be the only hike. Xbox quickly followed suit, but in far more ludicrous fashion. $500 for an Xbox Series X with a disc drive? Try $600. The Xbox Series S 1 TB is now $429.99. All of this as Xbox hardware continues to drop each quarter, but surely the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X will fix things, even as Microsoft has delayed announcing the price to “try to find the right balance between affordability and price point.”
Oh, and Nintendo eventually did come back and increase the price for the Switch 1 in Canada and the United States. They’re not the biggest jumps, but a Switch OLED for $400 is certainly a choice.
Say what you will about things making sense business-wise, but Sony can finance several failed live-service titles, cancel them and release more, but draws the line at footing this impact on its operating income. At this point, Nintendo doesn’t really care – it can demand high prices on just about anything and people will pay out the nose (see the success of Mario Kart World, despite costing $80).
The fact that the Switch is winding down in support and yet received a price hike is peak capitalism. Kudos to Microsoft for backtracking on the $80 pricing for its first-party titles, especially when remembering that Game Pass is a thing. Why in the world would you pay that much for The Outer Worlds 2, especially when you buy and keep Clair Obscur forever, and put the rest of the money into a few months of Game Pass to play a bunch of other titles?
Now, you’re probably thinking none of this matters, especially if so many people already own a PS5 or even a Switch 2. However, even if tariffs are normalized in the future, there’s no guarantee that this isn’t the precedent going forward. Why else would the Switch 2 and PS5 Pro cost so much more than their predecessors/base consoles? At this point, both companies know that they have their ride-or-die fans, hook, line and sinker, and the competition isn’t nearly as compelling enough for newcomers to justify spending on them (Xbox still went and raised its prices anyway, so go figure).
If the gaming industry has taught me anything, it’s that big companies will hop on any trend if there’s even a hint of more money to be made or saved. Microsoft and even EA backed off adopting the $80 price model, and Sony hasn’t even hinted at approaching it. But remember how quickly each of them adopted the $70 price point just a few years ago. Video games may have been immune to inflation for all that time prior (for the most part), but publishers still tried to rake in additional revenue with Deluxe Editions, microtransactions, loot boxes, advanced access, you name it.
There’s no reason to think that the next Xbox or PS6 won’t have far higher prices than their predecessors. I would be surprised if they didn’t take a page out of Nintendo’s book and figure out how to accessorize even further for more revenue (or find other ways, like 8K/120 FPS, to incentivize consumers to spend). And while I could sit here alongside millions of others and say, “Well, at least I got my PS5 when it was cheap,” we’re all eventually going to pay more for future hardware, next-gen or not. If your console breaks and it’s not within warranty, have fun footing those costs or having to pick up a new one altogether.
All of this – alongside rising costs of other amenities – only serves to exacerbate falling console hardware sales in the United States. At a time of mass layoffs and relative stagnation, where video game spending has dropped by almost 25 percent in the region among 18-24-year-olds, gaming is becoming more of a premium commodity. It means a further commitment to existing libraries and increased success among mobile and free-to-play games. The bright side is that smaller titles and those with less punishing price points, like PEAK, are performing way beyond expectations (though being great games also doesn’t hurt).
Of course, that’s irrelevant to manufacturers like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, much less to companies like Take-Two, EA, Ubisoft, the list goes on. Maybe the console market will weather the storm. Maybe Microsoft will lay off tens of thousands of employees and have AI take their jobs with little actual return on the massive investment.
Nintendo can continue cruising along based on the smash success of the Switch 2, but all good things come to an end eventually. Sony is cruising along in a different sense, likely adopting a holding pattern for as long as possible to please shareholders (maybe even accelerating those rumored third-party plans). Because if nothing else, it’s way past the point of consistently delivering high-quality exclusives to loyal players or caring whether they can afford their wares.
With so many exciting announcements during Gamescom week (Silksong is very much real, and I couldn’t be happier), the PS5 price hikes feel like a sobering reminder of the present. Things could always be worse, but I’d appreciate it if 2025 could stop accepting that as a new challenge.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.