PS5 price increases by £40 as Sony cites ‘challenging’ conditions-OxBig News Network

Sony has raised the price of its PlayStation 5 consoles worldwide, citing “challenging” market conditions.

The price of the digital edition of the PS5 console in the UK has increased by £40 to £429.99.

Its cost for European customers has risen by approximately €50 to €499.99.

The company pointed to high inflation and “fluctuating exchange rates” in a blog post explaining its decision.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) executive Isabelle Tomatis said PS5 prices in Australia and New Zealand would also rise – including for physical versions that have a disc drive.

The company said the price of the physical edition of the console would not change in the UK.

But it has reduced the cost of its disc drives – which are required for those with digital consoles who want to play physical media – from £99.99 to £69.99 in the UK.

Piers Harding-Rolls, research director at Ampere Analysis, said the disc-free version of the PS5 had formed a larger share of Sony’s total sales over the last 18 months.

He said this new price adjustment had brought “the digital edition more into alignment with the standard version”.

While President Donald Trump has revealed a tariff exemption for some electronics, video game consoles are not thought to be among them.

Christopher Dring, who writes about the gaming industry in The Game Business newsletter, said while Sony did not directly mention tariffs in its decision, their “knock-on effect” could have an impact on pricing worldwide.

“The US is the biggest market for video game consoles, and rather than simply increase prices there, it’s possible the likes of PlayStation could increase pricing globally in an effort to protect, as best they can, the US market,” he told the BBC.

“Ultimately, the era when game consoles went down in price over time is certainly over.”

The price increase comes as Nintendo’s launch of its rival Switch 2 console was marred by the impact of US tariffs on markets worldwide.

It said it would suspend US pre-orders for the device so it could “assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions”.

And Mr Harding-Rolls said he felt Sony may have been given “the green light to increase pricing” due to the Switch 2’s £395 price tag.

“At its current pricing, the digital version would be cheaper than the Switch 2, leaving Sony with some breathing space to increase its pricing, while remaining competitive across the console hardware market,” he said.

This is the second time Sony has increased the RRP for its latest console.

Its initial £360 price tag for the disc drive-free digital edition was seen as a low price at the time, as Sony sought to match its price to that of the Xbox Series X.

But it rose the price by £30 in 2022 – meaning with the latest price increase, the digital edition of the PS5 has increased by roughly £70 since it first went on sale.