Sony, which was fined $3.5 million by the Federal Court at the start of COVID for making false and misleading representations on its websites about PlayStation warranties, is now looking to raise the price of its PS5 console which is under the pressure of mobile and PC gaming.
At this stage, the Japanese company has refused to rule out a PS5 price hike, but experts say “price increases are coming” as the business struggles with inflation issues.
The company was recently questioned about whether the hard-to-get console could become harder to get hold of in the coming months, as the company appeared to be favoring supply on its own direct sales websites rather than retailers such as JB Hi Fi and EB Games.
Credit: TechUnwrapped
Sony has confirmed that they have sold 21.7 million PS5 consoles since the product’s launch, including 2.4 million in the three months to June 30.
That quarter included 47.1 million PlayStation games, 79% of which were direct sales that didn’t go to retailers that helped build the brand around the world before Sony moved to direct sales.
In Australia, Sony removed reference to retailers from its Australian website earlier this year.
Sony’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, Hiroki Totoki, has refused to deny that price hikes are coming.
Sony recently revealed that there was “a much lower level of engagement” than it had anticipated, meaning players are playing less than a year ago (via Game Developer ).
Speaking of supply issues, Sony management said, “There were two major constraints we were faced with. One was the availability of parts and components; the other was the supply chain. With the availability of parts and components there are a lot of improvements, so we are very hopeful, quite optimistic about it.
“For supply chain disruption, we actually had great success in the first quarter. In the first quarter, hardware sales volume was quite a bit lower than we expected at the beginning of the year, so the supply chain disruption is something we hope will be fully resolved.”
About the author of the post
David Richards has been writing about technology for over 30 years. A former Fleet Street reporter, he wrote the award-winning series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin which led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie winner for his outstanding contribution to television journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built Australia’s largest technology media company and before that the third largest PR firm to become the founding firm of Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and its impact on both businesses and consumers.