You’d think that the product prices would go down over time, but in the case of PS5, you’d be wrong. Sony announced and implemented a price increase for their PlayStation 5 consoles in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Naturally, the gamer community is not happy with that.
The price of tech products usually goes down over time. The technology itself either gets outdated or simply becomes more accessible, resulting in a price reduction as shiny new products take their place. The same can be said for the gaming world, as components, consoles, and the games themselves usually get cheaper as time goes by. However, due to various reasons and excuses, Sony decided that the price of PS5, a five-year-old console, should now go up.
Sony Increases the Price of PlayStation 5 in Europe (UK Included), Australia, and New Zealand, Due to “High Inflation and Fluctuating Exchange Rates”
On March 13, Sony posted an announcement stating that due to “high inflation and fluctuating exchange rates,” they have decided to increase the Recommended Retail Price of the PlayStation 5 console in “select markets in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Australia and New Zealand.”
The price increases are effective starting April 14, and are as follows:
| Europe | PS5 Digital Edition – €499.99 (From €449.99) |
| UK | PS5 Digital Edition – £429.99 (From £389.99) |
| Australia | Standard PS5 – AUD $829.95 (From AUD $799.95) PS5 Digital Edition – AUD $749.95 (From AUD $679.95) |
| New Zealand | Standard PS5 – NZD $949.95 (From NZD $899.95) PS5 Digital Edition – NZD $859.95 (From NZD $769.95) |
However, they decided that the prices of external disk readers will go down.
| Europe | €79.99 (From €119.99) |
| UK | £69.99 (From £99.99) |
| Australia | AUD $124.95 (From AUD $159.95) |
| New Zealand | NZD $139.95 (From NZD $169.95) |
Finally, the price of PS5 Pro will remain unchanged.
The Community Is Outraged, Many Are Blaming the US Tariffs
Naturally, the gaming community is not too happy with this. The majority states the fact that it is ridiculous to increase the price of a console five years after its launch. “Remember when consoles prices used to go down over time?” reminisced one player. However, no one is buying the “inflation and exchange rates” excuse, and a lot of players say that the recent US tariffs situation is to blame.
As we are all aware by now, the US government recently increased its import tariffs. And as you can see, the US market is unaffected by the PS5 price increase. A lot of players are sure that this is Sony’s way of dealing with Trump’s tariff increase: to compensate for the losses in the US market, they increase the prices in other regions. As for how the tariffs for China have anything to do with Japan’s Sony, one player notes: “They’re manufactured in China. And it looks like they’re passing the cost of the tariffs on to the smaller markets to avoid raising the price in their largest market, which is the USA.”
Finally, the award for the best comment on the whole situation goes to ItsMrProducts for stating: “We got two price rises before GTA 6”.
Without further delving into politics, no one is really happy with the price increase. As it stands now, the PS5 is more expensive than it was at launch. To add insult to injury, it is now more expensive than Nintendo Switch 2 (RRP around £395.99), a console that has yet to be released. Hopefully, this is only a temporary solution. It looks like every good decision has to be followed by a questionable one.
