Today, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced another price hike for the PS5 series of consoles, and it’s not a small one.
The cheapest you’ll be able to get a PS5 console in the US with the new pricing scheme is $600 for the Digital Edition, which is a massive $100 increase from the previous $500 price. Yes, we’re not doing the point-ninety-nines in this case. We’re not interested in insulting your intelligence.
Things are even worse if you want a PS5 Pro, with the price literally jumping from 750 bucks to 900 bucks. We’re basically in the realm of PC money, at this point.
Here’s the full slate, which also includes new pricing for PlayStation Portal.
U.S.
- PS5 – $649.99
- PS5 Digital Edition – $599.99
- PS5 Pro – $899.99
U.K.
- PS5 – £569.99
- PS5 Digital Edition – £519.99
- PS5 Pro – £789.99
Europe
- PS5 – €649.99
- PS5 Digital Edition – €599.99
- PS5 Pro – €899.99
Japan
- PS5 – ¥97,980
- PS5 Digital Edition – ¥89,980
- PS5 Pro – ¥137,980
PlayStation Portal
- U.S. – $249.99
- U.K. – £219.99
- Europe – €249.99
- Japan – ¥39,980
The only small concession is the fact that if you move quickly, you may not be out of luck, as the new pricing will be effective only in a few days, on April 2. And yes, it’s not an April Fool’s prank, although it feels like one.
According to Sony’s explanation, which does feel like an insult to our intelligence, this is “a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide.”
Of course, this conveniently ignores the fact that PlayStation is literally the best-selling and most profitable business Sony has in its slate, with profits up 19% year-on-year in the latest Holiday quarter.
But hey, apparently, Sony needs to get into the realm of PC money to “ensure they can continue delivering innovative experiences.” Personally, I’d rather simply play games. I’ll leave the “innovative experiences” to the new-age youngsters out there, but to each their own, I suppose.
I suppose I can be thankful to Microsoft for persuading me to buy a PS5 to cover the dedicated version of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 before this travesty happened.
