Sony ups Playstation prices amid inflation woes
Sony has upped the price for PlayStation 5 (PS5) games, citing inflation and ongoing macroeconomic pressures.
The Japanese gaming titan said the hikes would come into effect immediately.
“The global economic environment is a challenge that many of you around the world are no doubt experiencing,” Sony said in a blog post. “We’re seeing high global inflation rates, as well as adverse currency trends, impacting consumers and creating pressure on many industries.”
In the UK, this means a £30 increase for gamers, bringing the price to £479.99 for the disc versions of the console and £389.99 for the digital edition.
Sony said it would not be raising prices in the US, and will not boost prices in Japan until September.
Meanwhile, rival firm Nintendo said it would be avoiding price rises for consumers, despite its own production and shipping costs soaring in recent months.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa told newspaper Nikkei: “In order to offer unique entertainment to a wide range of customers, we want to avoid pricing people out.
“Our competition is the variety of entertainment in the world, and we always think about pricing in terms of the value of the fun we offer.”
To make matters worse, Sony is also facing a £5bn class-action lawsuit, brought forward on behalf of 8.9m people earlier this week.
The video game console maker is being sued by consumer rights campaigner Alex Neill for its practice of charging a 30 per cent commission on purchases made through the PlayStation store.
The lawsuit, filed to Competition Appeal Tribunal, said Sony abused its dominant market position to generate as much as £5bn in revenues over the past six years.
If successful, the claim could see millions of PlayStation customers entitled to compensation amounting to estimated sum of between £67 to £562, plus interest.
The damages will be paid out to anyone in the UK who has purchased digital games or in-game content through the PlayStation store since August 2016.