Goodbye, Savings: Sony Pumps Up PS5 Prices
Sony has announced that they are raising the prices of their PS5 games and other gaming accessories by 3% due to the rising costs of materials and manufacturing expenses. The change will go into effect on February 15th, 2019, and will affect all products released after that date until further notice. Sony also plans to raise their subscription service costs in the future, but has not set a date for these changes to take effect yet. However, those who already have an active subscription will not be affected by this change until it’s time to renew.
What Is the PlayStation 5?
The PlayStation 5 is the latest console from Sony. It’s not been announced yet but, the release date will be in 2021. There’s not much else we know about it except that it might come with a 3D display and the addition of ray-tracing technology which allows for ultra-realistic graphics. In case you’re wondering, there’s also no indication of how much it’ll cost either.
The price of new consoles is always a point of contention. People have been complaining about it since 1997, when Sony released its original PlayStation console and asked gamers to pay $300 for it. Since then, we’ve seen console prices increase steadily while other electronics have gotten cheaper. It’s tough to get a sense of just how much things have changed over time though because there’s no baseline price that can be used as a reference point.
What Are the Changes?
The PS5 will cost $399 in the US. There’s no price given for the UK yet, but the currency conversion from euros puts it at £350. Sony has yet to announce how much it’ll cost in Australia. The Pro starts at $499 or about £390 and goes up from there for different configurations. The cheapest console is a PS4 Slim with only one controller and a game at $199 (around £140). Of course, that excludes whatever games you want to buy separately…
Why Is This Happening?
Why is Sony raising the price on the PS5? Is it really just to get people to pre-order? What’s in the new console that costs so much? Why does Sony believe a sub-$300 PS5 is unappealing for consumers? These are all fair questions for players and investors alike. Unfortunately, Sony won’t answer them directly or even give any concrete answers about the PS5 in its conference call.
Sony’s answer boiled down to these points – we don’t know when or if you’ll be able to purchase it and we have an agreement with Microsoft that prevents us from disclosing too many details. The PlayStation 5 will not come out until after 2020 and won’t cost $299. Don’t get your hopes up about buying one for Christmas this year.
What Do I Do Now?
When Sony announced its price for the PS5, it may have seemed that much more expensive than what we all thought. What Sony did was they pumped up the prices of production materials. The game console maker plans to raise the cost of memory chips by 60% and NAND Flash by 30%. It also increased its pricing for disc-manufacturing supplies by 100%. This is because Sony has to pay even more money on behalf of customers to get their hands on these materials. There is a little silver lining to this unfortunate event though. For now, prices are only going up and not down when they are expected in 2019 and 2020.
How Much Will It Cost Me?
Sony announced the new PlayStation 5 consoles will start at $399 USD. This is a $100 premium over the starting price of the PS4 when it launched in 2013. Sony says it raised the price due to the leap in technology and power. What do you think? Will this increase put you off from buying a PS5?
Where Should I Buy One?
For those who are eagerly waiting for the release of the PlayStation 5, I have some bad news. Sony announced that they were upping their prices and would be selling at a whopping $499 for the base console. The reason for this is likely that Sony plans to include an HDMI cable in every box. However, if you’re looking to buy one sooner rather than later then Best Buy has them on sale with a pre-order date of October 4th. I think that PS5 isn’t going to be getting any cheaper anytime soon so you might as well just bite the bullet now.
When Can I Get One?
In a move to quell the vicious cycles of PlayStation supply shortages and rampant reselling, Sony has decided to make their new PS5 consoles much more expensive. Each PS5 will cost $499 (about £350 or AU$700) when it launches on November 15th. There is still time to pre-order one as they’re only shipping in early 2020. That may seem pricey, but it’s much better than the inflated secondary market price that was once over $2000 for an original model PS4! Plus, all of your online gameplay can be saved with Sony’s new cloud gaming platform!
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