When Sony first raised the price of the PlayStation 5 in Japan, they later raised the price in the West… and history is about to repeat itself again!

Sony has announced on the PlayStation Blog in Japan that it is drastically increasing the price of the PlayStation 5 due to “the recent challenging external environment, including the current fluctuations in the global economic situation and its impact on our business”. Sony has raised the price by about 90 yen. But it’s not just the PlayStation 5 (and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition), it’s also the DualSense controller and the PlayStation VR2! (It’s probably barely sold so far… so are they making it worse on purpose?)

The PlayStation 5 will go from 66980 yen to 79980 yen (19.4% price increase!), the Blu-ray Driveless version will be 72980 yen instead of 59980 yen (~21.7%!), the DualSense will be 11480 yen instead of 9480 yen (~21.1%!), and the PlayStation VR2 will be 89980 yen instead of 74980 yen (20%). This brings the price of the PlayStation 5 with Blu-ray drive to about the same level as in the West. Beyond the temporary discounts, Sony’s console, which will be released in the fall of 2020, hasn’t received a single price cut and has even become more expensive in Japan, having already received a $210/225 price increase since its launch. The new price hike takes effect on Monday, September 2.

And it’s true that the global economic situation means that we can expect Sony to raise the price of the PlayStation 5 again by $/€50 in the West by the end of the year. It should be noted, however, that the system has never had a fixed price cut before. So it could be much cheaper to buy the Xbox Series (although we have already written that it hardly sells in Europe), or the Nintendo Switch (although it is a 7.5 year old platform), or perhaps its successor that has not yet been announced.

Are we really afraid to ask how much Sony will charge for the PlayStation 5 Pro after all this? The price of a new car? We wouldn’t be surprised.

Source: WCCFTech, PlayStation Blog