Sony increases the prices of its PlayStation 5 due to high global inflation

Prices increased “with immediate effect” in markets in Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and Canada.

playstation 5

The Japanese group Sony announced this Thursday that its popular PlayStation 5 (PS5) console will be sold more expensive in most markets, except in the United States, due to the high inflation that impacts the world and adverse exchange effects.

The price of the PS5 in Europe will rise 10% to 549.99 euros , for the console with a disc reader, and 12.5% ​​to 449.99 euros, for its digital version. While in Mexico the prices will rise by $1,000 Mexican pesos and will remain at $14,999 and $12,499, respectively.

FIFA 23 release date

For its part, in the United Kingdom the PS5 Blu-Ray goes from cost 449.99 to 479.99 pounds sterling and the digital edition increases from 389.99 to 395.99 pounds sterling . In Canada the new prices are C$649.99 (PS5 Blu-Ray) and C$519.99 (PS5 Digital Edition).

Prices will increase in the Asia Pacific, Latin American, Middle East, African and Canadian markets. The “immediate effect” of the hikes will be felt in Europe, the UK, China, Australia, Mexico and Canada. In Japan prices will not rise until next September 15 .

Sony said select markets it did not mention may also receive price increases, attributing these increases to "high global inflation rates, as well as adverse currency trends, affecting consumers and putting pressure on many industries."

“Given these challenging economic conditions, (Sony) made the difficult decision to increase the PS5’s recommended retail price in certain markets,” said Jim Ryan, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

The company did not detail the reason why the United States was not included in the increases, despite the fact that the world’s leading economy also faces strong inflation , and that in July it reached 8.5%, the highest figure in 41 years.

Jim Ryan recalled that Sony’s priority continues to be to improve the production of its PS5 consoles, which suffers from continuous interruptions in the supply chain that often make it difficult for consumers to access these products.

Dollar and inflation affected the confidence of businessmen in Colombia in July

According to the Fedesarrollo Business Opinion Survey, merchants, industrialists and entrepreneurs perceive an environment of uncertainty in the different productive sectors of the country, due to what will come in the coming months thanks to inflation and the price of the dollar.

The survey indicates that these two scourges will hit the national economy hard, despite the fact that growth in exports is expected compared to last year , taking into account the rising prices of raw materials.

Luis Fernando Mejía, executive director of Fedesarrollo, assured that in July 2022, the Commercial Confidence Index stood at 30.7% , which represents a drop of 3.0 pps compared to the previous month, when it stood at 33, 7%. With this, there are already two consecutive months in which this indicator falls in the country, taking into account that for May it was 39.0%.

“The decrease in confidence was mainly explained by an increase of 8.9 pps in the level of inventories and a decrease of 3.9 pps in the indicator of current economic perception of companies. However, the indicator of economic expectations for the next six months showed an increase of 4.0 pps ”, he explained.

In this way, the confidence of the merchants was below the average for the second quarter of 2022 (34.5%), which shows that in the last three months of this year the demand in this sector has been falling.

*With information from the AFP Agency