Global conditions – the vague snake oil used to massage any kind of price hike onto the public. Sony is not the first corporation to blame nebulous nonsense ahead of a price jump. Let’s face it, energy companies have had a fair old crack of the whip unchallenged for a while now, but the increase of a minimum of $100 onto the only viable gaming console right now hurts.
I wrote at the end of March that Sony sells around three million units a month at worst, so if you stick $100 on each of those, even if you don’t take all that as profit, it’s a decent incoming amount. If the production costs of a console have actually gone up by $100, that therefore means that Sony is prioritising maintaining its profit percentage and margin ahead of customers, so yeah, well, make of that what you will.
“We know that price changes impact our community, and after careful evaluation, we found this was a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide.”
Oh blah, blah.
Maybe they have gone up by more than that, and Sony is taking the hit. We will never know because the comments are so deliberately vague.
What we do know is that the price of a PS5, a nearly six-year-old console, is now unfathomably high for many, and rather than teaching Sony a valuable lesson in economics, you all dashed out to purchase one before the price hike.
As spotted by Kotaku, Mat Piscatella at Circana highlighted that Sony had its best hardware sale so far this year.
It will obviously be interesting to see the drop-off post-rise, but it almost doesn’t matter. This new price is the new norm; it’s never going to drop again, and if you want to play GTA VI on a PS5, many people will, which will result in more cash flow when it eventually releases.
Maybe I am too old and sceptical for this stuff now, but I don’t really believe in coincidences.
Last Updated On: Apr 15, 2026 2:58 pm CEST