Just a few days ago Sony confirmed an increase in the price of PS5, a movement with which the Japanese company justifies talking about things such as the increase in production costs and inflation, but the truth is that:
- Semiconductor shortages are no longer a serious problem.
- Prices for such important components as DRAM and NAND Flash memory, which are supplied under fixed-term contracts, are falling.
- Inflation affects Microsoft and Nintendo equally, and neither of these two companies has raised the price of its consoles.
With those three points on the table, and considering that PS5 will soon be two years old, it’s hard to really justify the price increase of said console, but it has a fairly simple explanation. Sony holds a privileged position, and the huge victory it achieved in the previous generation with PS4 has given it an image and prestige which have greatly benefited PS5.
As a console, PS5 is a system that loses in raw power to Xbox Series X, has less storage capacity and lacks such interesting services as Xbox Game Pass. In spite of everything, it has been created around him the mantra that it is the best console of the new generation, something that reminds me of what happened with PS2.
Company-wide image is so important and can benefit your products so much that today there are still people who believe that PS2 really was the most powerful console of its generation, and PS5 is in a similar situation. This unleashed a huge craze around PS5 since it hit the market, “everyone” wanted to buy a console, and that huge demand coupled with Sony’s low production capacity made resellers and speculators profit by draining the market for later sell huge amounts of ps5 double or triple its price.
Almost two years after its launch, the situation remains practically unchanged. Every PS5 that hits the market sells out instantly, Sony knows this, and is aware that it can afford to raise the price of your console without this affecting your sales. By contrast, Microsoft and Nintendo are not in the same situation, their consoles have been a success, but they know that a price increase could affect their sales, and they have preferred not to follow in Sony’s footsteps.
That decision is correct because it also improves the value of its consoles compared to PS5. That console is more expensive today than two years ago, and it is still less powerful and less interesting in terms of services than an Xbox Series X. Nintendo Switch plays in another league, but Nintendo’s little one is on its way to surpassing PS4 in sales. We will see how the situation evolves, but I think that Sony is not getting it right with the movements it is making, and if at any time that facade that has been built around PS5 collapses, we could once again experience a situation similar to that of the generation for PS3 and Xbox 360.
