First the PlayStation 5 controller went up in price in Japan (as well as the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2), now the price has gone up in the US, but there’s also a quiet price increase in Europe…
The basic DualSense controllers (black, white) will be available for $75 instead of $70, while the color controllers have also gone up by a similar amount, so you can buy a controller that connects to PlayStation 5 and PC for $80 instead of $75. That’s 7.14% and 6.67% if you look at the price increase. While it is true that Japan has seen a bigger price increase, the console and VR headset have not escaped the price hike. We mentioned the DualSense Edge controller for a reason, as Sony is not increasing the price, so the elite controller can still be bought for around $200.
In the UK, the price of the controllers has also been increased by five to five pounds, and we quickly checked archive.org, and indeed: the DualSense, which was €70, is now available for €75, and the color versions will be €80 instead of €75. Doing this right before the announcement of the PlayStation 5 Pro can only be described as ridiculous. They’re announcing a half-generation update and they want to make a quick buck…
The price hike is not so surprising, as Sony saw a 27% drop in PlayStation 5 hardware sales in the first quarter of its fiscal year (April to June 2024) compared to the previous year. Of course, the console has already sold over 60 million units, but it will be very risky if they increase the price of the PlayStation 5 again after DualSense (they did it once and so far they only offered discounts during the promotional periods…), because it will only hurt sales.
At least Nintendo didn’t touch the price of the Switch, because even Microsoft raised the price of the Xbox and Game Pass…
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