Sony is raising global prices of its PlayStation 5 consoles, including a $100 increase in the US, marking its second hike in less than a year as the entertainment giant grapples with rising costs of key components such as memory chips.
The tech industry’s race to build out artificial intelligence infrastructure has pushed memory makers to favor higher-margin datacenter chips, tightening supply for consumer devices like the ones Sony sells.
The updated US prices, effective 2 April, will put the standard PS5 at $649.99, up from $549.99. The digital edition will now cost $599.99, while the high-end PS5 Pro will cost $899.99. Prices of the PlayStation Portal remote player will also climb to $249.99 from $199.99.
Similar increases will take effect across Europe and Japan, after what the company described as a “careful evaluation” of rising cost pressures in global supply chains.
Iran’s attack last week on Qatar’s natural gas export facility forced it to shut down, threatening supplies of helium, a key ingredient used to produce computer chips. Qatar supplies a third of the world’s helium, according to the US Geological Survey.
Qatar’s state-owned gas company said last week the shutdown would slash helium exports by 14%. Lower supply means higher prices, especially if the war drags on for months or longer, analysts said.
While most people know of helium as the gas that makes party balloons float, it is also essential for manufacturing semiconductors used in computers and an array of other tech devices.
Analysts have said the console price hikes are likely to dampen growth in the video-game market this year. Fortnite maker Epic Games also cited sluggish console sales among the reasons for the cut of 1,000 jobs it announced earlier this week.
In the key October-December holiday quarter, sales of Sony’s PlayStation 5 fell 16% from a year earlier to 8m units. The console has been on the market for around six years.
Sony last raised PS5 prices by about $50 in the US in August last year. Microsoft also raised prices of its console, the Xbox, last year.
