Unlike past consoles, the ninth generation of consoles (Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5) has not gotten cheaper over time. Instead, it's the complete opposite, with price increases making consoles more expensive than at launch.
Now, a French insider believes that yet another price increase could be on the way to the European market. Taking to social media, GyoJvfr shared that “drastically” increased prices are on the way and will be announced soon.
If these prices were to be implemented, it would be the second such increase in less than a year. Earlier, Sony had revealed the price hike last April, before citing a “challenging economic environment including high inflation and volatile exchange rates” as a “difficult decision”.
After the increase in non-US markets, Sony revealed a price increase for the United States, specifically making the PlayStation 5 Pro one of the most expensive pieces of hardware.
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By Black Friday, the prices of the consoles temporarily dropped, though they were basically back to where things were originally, making the savings more of a face.
Price hikes and stock shortages have hit gamers hard
The PlayStation 5 isn't the only piece of tech that has seen a price hike, much to the dismay of many gamers. The Xbox Series X also had a price increase, not once but twice, pushing the Series X to a $700 price tag. Lately, Target has sent offers to move stock and get people to upgrade, though mostly at a loss for Microsoft.
So far, the Nintendo Switch 2 has avoided a price hike. However, recent reporting suggests that Nintendo may not be able to cope with increased component costs for much longer. These price increases have had an outsized effect on the market as a whole, with consoles having their worst month on record since 1995 in November.
This current market is only hitting the big players badly, as the viral dual-screen OLED handheld for emulating games was also hit with a price hike, such as the Nex Playground, a console that was particularly popular during Black Friday sales.
Elsewhere, the largest video game preservation project around was forced to close its doors, in part, due to rising costs that can be attributed to the storage and RAM boom. It remains to be seen whether these “drastic” increases for Sony's flagship consoles will end, but if they do, they won't be all that surprising considering the current market.
- brand
-
Sony
- Original release date
-
November 12, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
-
$499, €499, £449, ¥49,980 (base) // $399, €399, £359, ¥39,980 (digital),
- operating system
-
Orbis OS
- processor
-
Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- resolve
-
720p – 8K
