PS5 prices raised by Sony due to inflation

Inflation affects all sectors, including video games. The Japanese group Sony has announced, in a press release published Thursday, August 25, an increase in the selling prices of its PlayStation 5 (PS5) consoles in most of its markets with the exception of the United States, justifying this decision as a means of adapting to high inflation, as well as to unfavorable currency effects. It is rare for a console to see its price increase after its launch (the PS5 was released in November 2020), prices tending to decrease over time.

The prices of the PS5 in Europe will therefore rise by 50 euros to reach 549.99 euros (+ 10%) for the console with disc drive and 449.99 euros (+ 12.5%) for its digital version, according to the communicated. Its prices are also increasing ” with immediate effect “ in the United Kingdom, China, Australia, Mexico and Canada, while they will only be raised in Japan from September 15. Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa are also concerned.

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” A necessity “

“We are seeing high levels of inflation, as well as negative currency effects, affecting consumers and putting many industrial sectors under pressure”explains in the press release Jim Ryan, the boss of Sony Interactive Entertainment, the group’s video game entity. “Due to these tough economic conditions, we have made the difficult decision to increase the recommended retail prices for the PS5” in various countries, added Mr. Ryan, assuring that it was ” a necessity “. The reason why Sony spared the United States has not been specified, even though inflation is very high in the world’s largest economy.

Mr. Ryan also recalled that Sony’s priority remains the improvement of the production of its PS5 consoles, which suffers from the persistent disruption of its supply chains, which makes these products often difficult to access for consumers, except to go through parallel circuits charging prohibitive prices.

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No increase of the same type has been decided for the moment on the side of the competition, neither on the side of the American giant Microsoft (which produces the Xbox consoles), nor on the side of the Japanese company Nintendo. The president of the latter, Shuntaro Furukawa, declared ten days ago to the newspaper Nikkei that his group did not envisage ” for the moment “ to raise the prices of its Switch console, despite increased production and distribution costs. “We want to avoid excluding” consumers, he said.

The World with AFP