Sony Hikes PS5 Price by £90 Because Apparently Gaming Wasn't Expensive Enough

Your Wallet Just Felt a Disturbance in the Force

Sony has announced yet another price increase for the PlayStation 5, and this time it is a proper sting. From 2 April 2026, the PS5 will jump from £479.99 to £569.99 in the UK, a 19% increase that makes the console roughly 30% more expensive than when it launched back in November 2020. For a bit of context, that original price was £449.99. The PS5 is now ageing like a fine wine, except the only thing maturing is the price tag.

The Full Damage Report

Let us run through the numbers, because they are not pretty:

• PS5 (disc edition): £569.99 (up £90, a 19% increase)
• PS5 Digital Edition: £519.99 (up £90, a 21% increase)
• PS5 Pro: £789.99 (up £90, a 13% increase)
• PlayStation Portal: £219.99 (up £20)

Across the pond, the PS5 will now set Americans back $649.99, while the PS5 Pro climbs to a rather eye-watering $899.99. That is dangerously close to the psychological $1,000 mark, which should make for some entertaining conversations between teenagers and their parents this Christmas.

Why Is This Happening?

Sony Vice President Isabelle Tomatis described the increases as "a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences." Which is corporate speak for: components have got very expensive and someone has to pay for it.

The real culprit? AI. Specifically, the insatiable appetite of AI data centres for RAM and storage. DRAM contract prices surged by a staggering 90-95% in Q1 2026, as tech giants hoovered up global supply to power their latest large language models. Gaming hardware, it turns out, is now competing directly with AI infrastructure for the same chips.

Piers Harding-Rolls, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis, pointed to this supply chain shock as the primary driver. Sony is not alone in feeling the squeeze either. Valve recently had to delay its Steam Machine console and reconsider its pricing for exactly the same reason.

It Gets Worse

The ongoing US-Israel conflict with Iran has added fuel to the fire, quite literally. Brent crude has surged 10-13%, and roughly 19% of global LNG trade through the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted. Higher energy costs ripple through manufacturing and shipping, pushing component prices even higher.

This is also Sony's second price hike in under a year. The PS5 Digital Edition was bumped up by £40 back in August 2025, meaning loyal PlayStation fans have absorbed £130 in increases in roughly eight months. That is the kind of loyalty programme nobody asked for.

The Bigger Picture for Gaming

The timing could hardly be worse for the industry. Just days before Sony's announcement, Epic Games confirmed it was laying off around 1,000 employees, approximately 20% of its workforce, citing declining Fortnite engagement. Average monthly PlayStation hours for the game reportedly dropped from 21 to 16 between February 2025 and February 2026.

Microsoft and Nintendo both raised console prices in 2025, and analysts expect further hikes across the board. The era of the affordable games console appears to be drawing to a close, squeezed between AI demand, geopolitical instability, and the simple economics of manufacturing complex electronics in 2026.

The Verdict

A 19% price increase on a console that is six years into its lifecycle is historically unprecedented. The PS5 remains an excellent piece of hardware, but at £570 it is becoming increasingly difficult to recommend over a mid-range gaming PC, especially when the digital-only model now costs more than the disc edition did just months ago. If you have been on the fence about buying a PS5, the fence just got considerably more expensive too.

Read the original article at source.