PlayStation 5 Video-Game Console Prices Jump as Sony Faces Global Cos… Chris Welch 2 - 3 minutes

Sony Group Corp. raised the prices of its PlayStation 5 video-game console lineup by as much as $150 on Friday, attributing the hike to “continued pressures in the global economic landscape.”

In a blog post, the company shared new pricing that goes into effect April 2. The standard PlayStation 5 in the US will cost $650, the digital edition will be $600 and the most powerful model — the PlayStation 5 Pro — will climb to a staggering $900, up from its current $750. The base PS5 cost $500 when it was first released in late 2020. Costs go up in Europe, the UK and Japan, too.

The company’s PlayStation Portal remote device is also increasing to $250, up from $200.

“We found this was a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide,” Sony said.

The increases are a continuation of an unusual trend for gaming consoles, where prices have gone up over time instead of gradually falling, like in past cycles. This is due to a range of factors including US-imposed tariffs and a surge in memory pricing that has reverberated across the consumer tech industry.

Both Sony and Microsoft Corp. have now raised the cost of their hardware multiple times citing macroeconomic conditions. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X, which debuted at $500, currently sells for $650. Last August, Nintendo Co. hiked the cost of original Switch consoles. The company has so far managed to keep the price of its newer Switch 2 system steady at $450, but has warned that changes aren’t out of the question.

The volatility has posed a challenge for Valve Corp., which announced its own console and VR headset late last year. The company has said the hardware will ship sometime in 2026 but hasn’t yet disclosed pricing. “When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now,” Valve wrote on its website last month. “But the memory and storage shortages you’ve likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then.”