Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: For the Payers

Inflation has led to many expenses increasing in price, including some electronics. Facebook, for instance, increased the price of the Meta Quest 2 at the beginning of this month, from $299.99 and $399.99 to $399.99 and $499.99 for the 128GB and 256GB models, respectively. That is, as you can perhaps see, a significant $100 increase for both models. Including a free copy of Beat Saber, which costs $29.99 separately, won’t make that much easier to swallow.

It was after this that observers openly wondered whether one of the main video game hardware companies would follow suit, specifically Sony or Microsoft. (Nintendo wasn’t named much in those conversations, perhaps due to the Switch being over five years old now.) Sony, as it turns out, was the company brave, or perhaps dumb, enough to answer with a resounding “yes,” at least for most territories around the world.

Sony is raising the price of the PlayStation 5 in several, though not all, major territories. In a blog post authored by PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan (though unlikely to be entirely written by him), Sony explained that they’re taking this extraordinary move because of the “global economic environment, including [the] high inflation rates.” The prices are being increased in Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan (effective September 15th), China, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and in several Asian territories. A couple of North American territories are on the list, but the United States has noticeably been spared here… for now, anyway. Some territories are receiving more substantial increases, with the Japanese console options receiving a whopping 20-percent raise, likely influenced by how strong or weak their currency is at the moment. This is an incredible and largely unprecedented announcement to see as the holiday season approaches.

From a certain point of view, the PS5 already received a small price increase. The Horizon Forbidden West bundle has become the most available option in several territories around the world, including the US, which retails for $449 and $549 for the digital and disc-based versions, respectively. Both versions only include a voucher for the game. The bundle is restocked most frequently and remains in stock the longest on the PlayStation Direct store, where Sony gets a bigger cut from each console sold. Again, it’s subtle, but they’ve already made up for a small deficit in this manner.

A base price increase, of course, is an entirely different can of worms. The reasons for why Sony’s doing this are clear. What’s not as clear is whether they had no choice but to pursue this. There’s intentionally no way to observe the particulars of Sony’s financials to determine if the company had no other options, or they would otherwise hemorrhage money. Regardless of whether that’s the case or isn’t, it’s not going over well in gaming communities. Companies passing their hardships onto the consumer never does.

That said, Sony is unlikely to suffer any negative repercussions from this outside perception issues in largely online corners. Sony continues to sell every PS5 console they ship to stores around the world, and a price increase is unlikely to lower demand too heavily. There will remain no shortage of kids and adults who will want one for Christmas.

It’s possible Sony didn’t want to increase the price in the US right now because the American dollar remains stronger than other currencies which have suffered as they rarely have in other territories. Both the Euro and Japanese yen are weak at the moment, for instance. But the PS5’s stronger competition from Microsoft’s Xbox Series of consoles in the US could also be another reason. Granted, the Xbox platforms have also been strong against PS5 in the UK too, which is seeing the PS5 price increase, so perhaps it’s a combination of those two reasons.

But a price increase in the US down the line shouldn’t be ruled out. This will all depend on whether the increase affects sales to the point that Sony actually starts meeting demand for PS5 supply in countries that will see the price increase, and how the overall economy will fare. There’s no way to predict what will happen, but it’s likely (though hardly guaranteed) that Sony will wait until early next year to announce any further price increases from here on.

Sony has now taken the “L” from their old “For the Players” tagline and is now catering to our brave and foolish souls openly willing to pay more for PS5s, and who knows what could be next. That recently-announced DualSense Edge controller could come at a higher price than the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller (which goes for $179.99). Hell, maybe they’ll increase the prices of new games again to $79.99, to further bring back unneeded 1990s nostalgia. Meanwhile, PC gaming has never been more attractive, with GPU prices coming down thanks to resupplies.

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