Sony who was fined $3.5M by the Federal Court at the start of COVID for making false and misleading representations on its websites re PlayStation warranties is now looking to jack up the price of their PS5 console that is under pressure from mobile and PC gaming.
At this stage, the Japanese Company has refused to rule out a PS5 price increases however insiders are saying “Price increases are coming” as the business struggles with inflation issues.
Recently the company was questioned about whether the hard-to-get console could be harder to afford in the months to come with the Company appearing to favor supply to their own direct sell web sites over retailers such as JB Hi Fi and EB Games.
Credit: TechUnwrapped
Sony has confirmed that they sold 21.7 million PS5 consoles since the product was launched, including 2.4 million in the three months leading up to June 30.
That quarter included 47.1 million PlayStation games, 79% of which were direct sell sales that did not go to the retailers who helped build the brand around the world before Sony moved to direct sell.
In Australia Sony earlier this year removed reference to retailers from their Australian web site.
Sony’s executive deputy president and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki has refused to deny price rises are coming.
Sony recently revealed there was “a much lower level of engagement” than it had anticipated, meaning gamers are playing less than they were a year ago (via Game Developer).
Talking about supply issues Sony management said “There were two big constraints that we were imposed with. One was the parts and components availability; the other was the supply chain. With the parts and components availability there are a lot of improvements so we are very hopeful, quite optimistic about that.
“For supply chain disruption, we actually took quite a hit in the first quarter. In the first quarter, hardware volume for sales were quite smaller than we expected at the beginning of the year, so supply chain disruption is something that we hope will be completely addressed.”
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