‘Sony Computer Entertainment made history yesterday when it announced a console decision that no company to my knowledge has ever pulled before, at least on this scale and this late in the cycle. They announced on their PS Blog that they were raising the price of the PlayStation 5 by $50 (more or less) in the following regions: Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Mexico, Middle East, and the United Kingdom. So, you know, the world. You may notice one glaring omission on this list and it’s by no means unintentional; The United States.
Sony decided that they weren’t going to include the U.S. in their inflation test and I imagine there were several reasons for that decision. We’ll get to those in just a second, but it’s important to state that the main reason they didn’t include the U.S. is that they knew it was completely unethical & would bomb their reputation. That needs to be said out loud and that’s why I’m saying right up front. I don’t want someone to get to the bottom of this and reach a conclusion of “I can see why…” Stop. No. Go get your eyes checked. This is unethical, pure and plain.
I will acknowledge the argument I’ve seen some make and that is the fact that Sony might just be rewarding its biggest non-adversarial market base. Rather than arguing the political side of things with China in terms of raising your prices there, you could say that the United States is the second largest market for gaming in the world, but the U.S. almost equals their revenue and they do it with only 26% of what China could claim as a gaming population.. You’re not raising prices in one region because they spend more per player, far more, or so one could claim. I don’t think the argument holds water.
When you raise prices on the entire gaming world save for the United States, it’s because trying that move here would result in world-wide backlash, but with the backing of the United States’ legal system and political system. I’m not even saying Sony would lose lawsuits that would invariably be filed against them if they increased a price hike like this, the growing amount of negative publicity and ill-will built toward Sony would almost certainly be the gift of Cosmic Powers from Galactus himself for PlayStation’s primary rival, Microsoft. Sony knows this entire strategy would go tits up and that most of America would really take it to Sony over this, and they very well still could. Perhaps they should.
The PS5 came out in 2019 and customers are still having an impossible time finding one or having the money for it when one finally does come available. It’s really hard to set aside money in this rapidly changing environment, only briefly distanced from the worst the current and still very much ongoing pandemic had to offer. In terms of PS5 exclusives, there are none. As of present, there isn’t a single AAA title that has come out specifically and exclusively for the PS5, without including a previous generation copy also available for purchase. Anything you buy on PS5 can be bought on PS4.
The primary driver behind that decision has been developers being very reluctant to abandon previous generation hardware, especially when Sony reported in July of 2022 that the PS4 is the fourth-highest selling console of all-time and it’s still going strong. Sony already owns the record with the PS2 having sold 157.68 million being sold. But the PS4 checks in at 116.94 and third place is the GameBoy at 118.69, so if the PS4 goes on a nice run toward the end of its life like its predecessor the PS3 did, it could very well catch and surpass the legendary portable.
I present those numbers not to distract from the original point, but to paint a deeper picture of the full environment here and the ecosystem at play. Sony is actively punishing consumers by claiming inflation is causing them to raise prices. Well, if the inflation argument really held true then they would have no problem implementing it here. I wonder why they haven’t. Oh, what’s this I have here in my back pocket. It’s some sort of crumpled up article. Uhhh… here. Check it out. It’s called “Sony’s Doubled Profits Driven By Games, Music and Film.”
Let’s get a recap going here. Sony made record profits the previous year, in fact they doubled. They can’t even keep up with consumer demand and not because they can’t make it fast enough, but because of shortages of components needed for the systems worldwide. They don’t have games that can only be found on that specific system and no others, and they’re not trying it in their biggest market even though they’re citing a rather serious reason in claiming major inflation is its cause.
If they believe that, why not everyone? Why should Americans not have to pay our fair share if everyone else is? Gamers are nothing if not charitable and most gamers I know wouldn’t be cool with the idea of other countries paying for genuine inflation while we get a free pass. I at least speak for myself when I say that I know I’m not okay with it. I don’t like the fact that someone in Amman or Manchester is paying more for a PlayStation 5 than I paid, especially two years after I got mine. These things are supposed to go down in price after a couple years, not up in price.
Gaming communities are at their strongest when we stand up against things that are just plain wrong. I think this is one such instance. The arguments made for the price increase are weak and fall apart under closer scrutiny. More important, if they were true and Sony were being honest, I think that most gamers would, again, like to pay their fair share. We wouldn’t want someone in a different or potentially marginalized region to have a negative experience with gaming because a company saw dollar signs over humanity.
Sony has the power to take this back, apologize, and make this right. If they don’t, we owe our fellow gamers our support based on the grounds that it’s the right damn thing to do. There’s a reason it’s never been done before and we need to send a message that this sort of thing will never be tolerated again or it will become something they regularly deploy in the United States anyhow. I hope this small column of support helps because this tactic needs to be resigned to the dust-bin of gaming history.