Sony Confirms PS5 Console Price Increase for the UK and Europe!

It’s hardly any secret that prices have been increasing all around the world for pretty much everything. And no, not just technology either. I daresay that you’ve probably noticed that the cost to fill up your car’s gas tank or supermarket shopping cart has also gotten a little more eye-watering since the start of the year. – By and large though, when a tech retailer sets an MSRP price, they do typically like to stick to it wherever possible (and yes, I’m completely skirting around Nvidia and AMD graphics cards in this one – That’s another rant for another day!).

Following a report via Videocardz, however, if you haven’t yet managed to snag yourself a PS5 console, then there’s some bad news as Sony has confirmed that it has increased the MSRP of both the disc and digital consoles by, roughly, around 7-10%.

Sony Increases MSRP for PS5 Console

Citing increased inflation rates, Sony has confirmed the following price increases for its PS5 disc and digital edition consoles (and brace yourselves as they’re not insubstantial!):

• Europe
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – €549.99
  • PS5 Digital Edition – €449.99
• UK
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – £479.99
  • PS5 Digital Edition – £389.99
• Japan (effective Sept. 15, 2022)
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – ¥60,478 yen (including tax)
  • PS5 Digital Edition – ¥49,478 yen (including tax)
• China
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – ¥4,299 yuan
  • PS5 Digital Edition – ¥3,499 yuan
• Australia
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – AUD $799.95
  • PS5 Digital Edition – AUD $649.95
• Mexico
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – MXN $14,999
  • PS5 Digital Edition – MXN $12,499
• Canada
  • PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – CAD $649.99
  • PS5 Digital Edition – CAD $519.99

And just to give you a comparison, you can check out the image below which displays the full original MSRP costs. Just for a quick reference though, in the UK the cost of a disc PS5 system has gone up from £449.99 to $479.99 (a £30 increase).

Update

Following more comprehensive figures courtesy of TechPowerUp, it has been found that in some regions Sony has increased the cost of the PS5 console by over 20%. – Surprisingly, Japan, the home of Sony, appears to be the worst affected. Albeit, given that Microsoft’s Xbox system has practically zero influence in this region, they likely feel that the lack of any effective competition pretty much allows them to do whatever they want!

People in Japan will buy the PS5 because the only alternative is, basically, the Nintendo Switch. And in terms of comparative performance… Well, the Switch doesn’t have much shade to throw on the PS5.

What Do We Think?

It is more than a little curious that these price increases have not been applied to arguably what is one of the biggest gaming consumer regions (outside of Japan). Namely, North America. – It is, however, speculated that Sony is intending to keep the price static there (for the time being) due to them seeing significantly more market share competition from Microsoft and its Xbox Series X than in other markets.

This information would seem to confirm, therefore, that Sony feels pretty secure in its market share and demand in, pretty much, all other markets and the price increases may actually, in some respect, reflect how much.

What do you think though? Presuming you haven’t managed to get a PS5 yet, will these price increases put you off? – Let us know in the comments!