Sony Group is raising the global prices of its PlayStation 5 consoles, including a $100 increase in the U.S. This is its second price hike in less than a year as the firm deals with the rising costs of components like memory chips.
The updated U.S. prices, effective April 2, will put the standard PS5 at $649.99, up from $549.99. The Digital Edition will now cost $599.99 and the high‑end PS5 Pro will cost $899.99. Price of the PlayStation Portal Remote Player will increase to $249.99 from $199.99.
“We know that price changes impact our community, and after careful evaluation, we found this was a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide,” Sony said in a blog post.
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When Sony raised prices last year, it was amid rising inflation and uncertainty caused by U.S. tariffs. The company is now facing an unprecedented surge in memory prices. Memory prices have seen a huge jump because of memory makers directing their stock to huge demand from AI data centers, and their supply remains tight.
Prices have also been raised in Japan, the UK and Europe. In the UK, each PS5 model will increase by £90 (around $120).
Piers Harding-Rolls, research director of games at Ampere Analysis, told CNBC that price rises were inevitable due to the increase in memory prices. “It is likely that Sony had price protections for its components for a set period and this may well have come to an end,” Harding-Rolls said.
“With no sign of prices easing … Sony will have made the move to protect its slim hardware margins. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Microsoft and Nintendo followed suit in the not-too-distant future.”
A Sony executive said in February’s earnings call that the company aims to blunt the impact of higher memory costs by focusing on monetizing its current install base of PS5 users and further expanding its software and network service revenue.
Harding-Rolls also mentioned that there could be further pressure on the component parts because of the war in the Middle East. “A new wave of inflation is expected from the war in the Middle East, and this will compound the effect of the component price increases,” Harding-Rolls said.
Sony last raised PS5 prices by around $50 in the U.S. in August last year. Microsoft also raised prices of its console, the Xbox, last year.