Sony has taken some heat from the gaming community about its recent price hike for the PS5. This price hike affects several countries outside of the US, and it varies depending on the region. For instance, it’s gone up £30 (about $35.34) in the UK and €50 (about $49.99) across Europe. As for Japan, the price for the console went ¥10,500 (about $75.52). This change happened on August 25th for all of the markets except for the Japanese market. In Japan, its price hike will happen on September 15th. This is only made worse by the fact that getting these consoles is extremely hard. If you want to get one of these consoles and you’ve been waiting since 2020, you’re just getting bad news after bad news.
Nintendo, however, won’t increase the Switch prices
This is something that a lot of us would find surprising. No shade to Nintendo, but this is the company that rarely discounts its games. The four-year-old Kirby Star Allies is still $60… So, you should pardon us if we’re just a little bit shocked. In any case, Nintendo confirmed to EuroGamer that it’s not going to raise Switch prices in the midst of the global economic crisis. A spokesperson reiterated a statement made by company president Shuntaro Furukawa during the company’s 82nd annual shareholders’ meeting. In the statement, he says that “we currently do not have any plans to change the price of our hardware due to inflation or increased procurement costs in each country.” Basically, you can still buy a Nintendo Switch, Switch Lite, or Switch OLED at the same price. That’s good news if you’re still wanting to get your hands on one of these systems.
There’s still a little bit of information in the air
While Nintendo is not raising the prices of the Switch, we can’t rule out the company adjusting prices in other departments. Furukawa said that the company can’t comment on its pricing strategy. Also “We will determine our future pricing strategies through careful and continued deliberations.”. This doesn’t mean that we’ll see price increases, but it means that Nintendo is feeling the impact of the economy, and it’s making plans to help stave off future losses. We don’t know what the company could do, but we can expect some changes.
