The PlayStation 5 just got its second price hike in eight months. Starting April 2, the base PS5 jumps from $550 to $650, while the PS5 Pro leaps from $750 to a staggering $900. UK gamers take the hardest hit: the standard console rises £90 to £569.99—a 19% increase.

Sony blames “continued pressures in the global economic landscape.” Translation: memory chips are expensive and getting scarcer.

The root cause isn’t tariffs this time—it’s AI. RAM and flash memory manufacturers have shifted production toward high-margin data center components, leaving consumer electronics fighting for scraps. Kioxia, one of the largest memory makers, says its capacity is sold out through the end of 2026.

Gamers aren’t taking it well. “€650 for the 5 year old console base console is just insane,” wrote one user on Sony’s blog. Another called the move “disgusting,” noting prices should be falling this late in a console generation, not climbing.

Here’s the ugly truth: this probably isn’t just Sony’s problem. Valve already delayed its next-gen Steam Machine and VR headset over the same shortage. Nintendo hasn’t raised Switch 2 prices yet, but president Shuntaro Furukawa explicitly refused to rule it out, saying the company will “examine various factors” if memory prices keep climbing.

Analyst Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis told the BBC it “wouldn’t be a surprise if Microsoft and Nintendo followed suit in the not-too-distant future.”

The geopolitical wildcard? The ongoing conflict with Iran could trigger another wave of inflation, compounding the component crisis. Sony may have moved early—and aggressively—to lock in what margins it can.

Console gaming has historically gotten cheaper over time. This generation just broke the rules.

Sources