Earlier today, Sony announced that in most regions, the PlayStation 5 would see a price increase as a result of inflation. In response to this news, people began to wonder if other console manufacturers would enact similar price increases. The answer, at least for now, seems to be no. But both Nintendo and Microsoft were careful to leave open the possibility of future price increases.
After Sony confirmed it, due to continuing global inflationboth versions of the PS5 would see price increases in various regions:including Canada, Mexico, China and the UK—The next obvious question many had was: Would another company make the same drastic move? This is the internet, after all, a place where people are constantly yelling at each other about which console is better or worse and hatching conspiracies to explain why sites write good or bad news about consoles. So of course if Sony does something, people have to pick sides and start asking questions about Xbox and Nintendo.
Kotaku contacted Xbox about the Sony PS5 price increase and whether the company had similar plans to raise the price on the Xbox Series X or S. Microsoft’s response is a bit vague, mentioning no firm plans one way or the other.
Here is the full statement:
We are constantly evaluating our business to offer our fans great gaming options. Our Xbox Series S suggested retail price remains at $299 and Xbox Series X is $499. This also applies to other markets and their current prices.
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While it did confirm that right now the price hasn’t changed, it leaves open the very real possibility that as inflation gets worse, the tech company could decide to increase the price on one or both of its Xbox variants.
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Meanwhile, earlier this month, the president of Nintendo Shuntaro Furukawa said Asian Nikkei that it is currently “not considering” a Switch price increase, adding that the company doesn’t want to put a price tag on people not buying its super-popular console.
“Our competition is the variety of entertainment in the world,” said Furukawa. “And we always think of pricing in terms of the value of the fun we offer…Nintendo has sold over 100 million Switch units to date, and it’s important to keep the momentum going for our business overall.”
Still, this statement leaves the pricing issue open for Nintendo to change prices on the Switch if necessary. However, Nintendo has already somewhat increased the price of the Switch through the improved OLED model released last year. This is often how Nintendo raises the prices of its consoles without having to do a more traditional price increase like Sony.
meBoth companies are likely to be closely watching how markets, critics, and fans react to Sony’s PS5 price hike as they contemplate how to handle inflation going forward. And as the gaming market starts to slow down a bit After the huge numbers you saw during the pandemic, you better believe that companies like Nintendo are open to different ways to help keep their boats afloat as people start to have less income to spend on video game consoles and games. .
