Sony announces PlayStation 5 price increase in "select markets"

The PlayStation 5 is going up in price, Sony confirmed today. For those who live in Europe, the UK, Latin America, Canada, Australia, or in the Asian-Pacific (China or Japan), the games console will see a price increase as high as 13 percent, effective immediately. However, there won't be an increase for PS5s in the United States. 

Why a price hike? As Sony explained on its PlayStation Blog, this is due to "high global inflation rates, as well as adverse currency trends, impacting consumers and creating pressure on many industries." 

Earlier in the year, the entertainment industry was hit with a shortage of semiconductors that the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch consoles require. Additionally, Bloomberg reported that electronics manufacturers in Japan have had to increase the prices on their products to compensate for the decreasing value of the yen. 

Sony previously was cagey on the idea of increasing PS5 prices back in late July. Sony, along with fellow console makers Nintendo and Microsoft, were said by Bloomberg to be waiting on each other to pull the trigger on an increase in price, so as to not drive buyers to another system. 

Even with the increase in prices, Sony reaffirmed that its goal is to improve PS5 supply "so that as many players as possible can experience everything that PS5 offers and what’s still to come."

The new prices for the respective territories are as follows: