Potential PlayStation 6 buyers are terrified of hearing the price of next-gen consoles, as the cost of living crisis continues.
Video games have never necessarily been cheap, but there always used to be this expectation that consoles and games would inevitably lower their prices as the generations went on.
However, considering that modern video game consoles are actually rising in price nearly five years after launch is a troubling sign of the times.
The PS5 launched for $499 in 2020, and it now costs $549 after a recent price hike. Similarly, the PS5 Digital Edition rose by as much as $100, and recent reports have also suggested that Sony will be attempting to cut costs even further by reducing the storage size of the PS5 while keeping the price the same.
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It’s a dire sign of the times that console developers can no longer afford to drop the price of hardware, but actually need to increase them.
This is partly due to supply and demand issues, but is also an effect of the tariffs installed by the Trump Administration in the United States, which has seen gaming hardware prices skyrocket as high as 40%.
This has also led to game prices slowly creeping up in price, where games that once cost $60 are now targetting $70. Even Nintendo has got in on the trend, charging $80 for Mario Kart World when that launched in June.
As GamesIndustry.biz reports, this move “radically changes the entire promise of the console ecosystem to developers, publishers, and consumers – and it arguably makes entire classes of game completely commercially unworkable on console platforms.”
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As modern prices soar, it’s also got PlayStation fans worried that this will bleed into the next-generation of consoles, beginning with the PlayStation 6.
“You don’t say. PS6 will be 1000$,” reads one reply to the story on the PS5 Reddit page.
“I remember being pretty shocked when I saw the price point for the PlayStation 3. I figured it’s because they put a Blu-ray player in it. Now I see a console for $600 retail and I’m like yeah that sounds about right. They’ve got me thinking that’s normal,” writes another fan.
“I'm wondering if Sony isn't going to delay the PS6 until after the next Presidential election,” another wrote. “We're (the US) heading into a recession if we aren't already and the tariffs craziness is something Sony will want to avoid as long as they can.”
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We'll be keeping a close eye on all PS6 developments.
Topics: PlayStation, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Sony