A new analysis suggests that Sony’s painful PlayStation 5 price increase may be far from an isolated case in this generation. If component costs, inflationary pressure, and the current state of the tech industry continue on this path, Nintendo and Microsoft may soon face the same unpleasant decision.
Sony has already confirmed that it will raise the prices of the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal, after leaks from a French retailer had already hinted that a change was coming. However, according to Ampere Analysis analyst Piers Harding-Rolls, this move is likely not the end of the story. In his view, similar increases from Microsoft and Nintendo are also likely in the future, which would mean the first price hike for the Nintendo Switch 2 and the third one for the Xbox Series family.
Harding-Rolls argues that the situation is being driven not only by the memory crisis linked to the growth of AI infrastructure, but also by the likelihood of a new wave of inflation triggered by the conflict in the Middle East. He adds that Sony itself may not even be done raising prices. That would already be bad enough, but the issue becomes even more uncomfortable with system-selling releases like Grand Theft Auto VI on the horizon, while the Nintendo Switch 2 is still in the very early stage of its market life and the entire industry is trying to attract new hardware buyers.
This entire generation has gone off script
Speaking to Eurogamer, the analyst said the prolonged rise in the prices of memory and storage components, both of which are essential for console manufacturing, made Sony’s decision largely inevitable. He believes the company likely had pricing protections in place for certain parts, but that those protections may now have expired. With no visible sign that prices are easing – largely because of demand tied to AI infrastructure – Sony has moved to protect its already slim hardware margins. In Harding-Rolls’ view, that makes it entirely plausible that Microsoft and Nintendo could be forced down the same path in the not-too-distant future.
He also argues that a renewed inflation wave linked to the war in the Middle East could further worsen the impact of rising component prices, and may even have influenced the scale of these increases. The standard PlayStation 5 is going up by $100 in the United States, which amounts to an 18% rise, while the United Kingdom and Europe are expected to see similarly painful adjustments. Harding-Rolls believes that beyond the direct blow to hardware manufacturers, this could trigger broader concern across the industry, because both the console business and the AAA PC market rely heavily on continued hardware investment to attract new players and maintain momentum. If that weakens, demand for new software could weaken with it.
The Game Business also points to another uncomfortable factor: this console generation is already nearly six years old, and not every early PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series system is going to survive much longer. Some machines may start failing around the five-year mark and will need replacing, which raises an obvious question about whether consumers will still be able to afford that. The Nintendo Switch 2 is in a particularly delicate position because it is still at the beginning of its lifecycle, and Nintendo is still trying to push as many players as possible toward its ecosystem. The question is how well that strategy holds up if the hardware itself becomes more expensive.
What makes all of this especially striking is that previous console generations generally saw prices come down over time, not climb upward once, let alone two or three times. Yet that is exactly what is happening now, while consumers themselves are facing the same economic pressures Sony says forced its hand. At that point, it becomes increasingly fair to ask whether anyone other than the very wealthy will be able to keep up with the latest games and technology on consoles and PCs in the years ahead. The “joys” of late capitalism are not exactly trying to hide anymore.
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