Sony is increasing PS5 console price by £30 because of high inflation

metro.co.uk:

The PS5 now costs £480 in the UK, as Sony increases the prices of both models of console in every country except the US.

The PlayStation 5 has been regularly out of stock for most of the last two years but it’s finally starting to become easier to get hold of. The problem now though is that it’s suddenly more expensive.

Effective immediately, the standard version of the console will increase in price from £449.99 to £479.99. The Digital Edition, without a disc drive, will also increase in price by exactly £30, to £389.99.

The price hike is being blamed on the ‘current global economic environment’, with Sony specifically citing ‘high global inflation rates’ and ‘adverse currency trades’.

Similar price rises are also taking place across Europe, Japan, China, Australia, Mexico, and Canada – but not the US.

High inflation is also an issue in the States, so it’s immediately suspicious that Sony has managed to keep the price down there, while making all the other major markets take the burden instead.

There’s no indication of if and when the price might go down again, so this is probably going to be the standard for good, or unless there’s a major decrease in inflation and/or a new model of console is released that’s cheaper to manufacture (which does usually happen three or four years into a new console’s life).

Although Sony previously refused to comment on whether prices might increase there’s been no word from Microsoft on the issue, so it’s currently impossible to tell whether they might be contemplating a similar move.

Nintendo though has said it’s doing all it can to avoid a price increase for the Switch. That doesn’t mean it won’t still happen, but they’ve insisted they want to ‘avoid pricing people out’.

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