Sony PlayStation has announced major price increases for its line-up of PlayStation 5 consoles and its Portal accessory.
The U.S., the U.K., Japan, and Europe are all set to be affected by price hikes that followed a $50 rise in August last year, specifically in the U.S., due to tariffs and inflation.
The base PS5 is seeing $100 rises while the PS5 Pro is going up $150 in the U.S. alone. Other countries are getting similar sized price hikes.
These updated recommended retail prices for PS5 consoles will come into effect starting April 2nd. The price changes are as follows:
U.S.
PS5 – $649.99 (up $100)
PS5 Digital Edition – $599.99 (up $100)
PS5 Pro – $899.99 (up $150)
PS Portal – $249.99 (up $50)
U.K.
PS5 – £569.99
PS5 Digital Edition – £519.99
PS5 Pro – £789.99
PS Portal – £219.99
Europe
PS5 – €649.99
PS5 Digital Edition – €599.99
PS5 Pro – €899.99
PS Portal – €249.99
Japan
PS5 – ¥97,980
PS5 Digital Edition – ¥89,980
PS5 Pro – ¥137,980
PS Portal – ¥39,980
Sony cites “continued pressures in the global economic landscape,” which essentially sounds like it’s referring to the global RAM crisis among other things.
The announcement comes at a slightly inopportune time. Google announced ‘TurboQuant’ yesterday, a still-in-the-lab memory-optimisation algorithm for AI that researchers claim “could reduce the amount of ‘working memory’ an AI model requires by at least 6x” thanks to massive compression reports Tech Crunch.
The hope is that if it works as well as promised and is deployed, it could eventually help ease the RAM shortage. However, we’re still some time away from any practical application.
Source: PlayStation.com
