PS5 price rises are so bad I’ve given up ever owning another PlayStation – Reader’s Feature

As all PS5 consoles suffer a major new price increase a reader explains why he’s given up on ever getting one and will instead buy a gaming PC.

I almost don’t know what to say about the fact that there’s been yet another price increase for the PlayStation 5. And this time they didn’t even bother to make up a reason for why. If they try and pretend it’s because of the Iran War that’s nonsense because it only just started and who knows when and how it’ll end. If it’s because of the memory crisis that’s something at least, but they didn’t even mention that.

I’m not saying that there’s not some problems going on that would make things difficult for Sony, but there’s a difference between making a few percent less on each console and increasing the price by £90. Of course, it’s only $50 in the US, which is £38, so even though they’re responsible for the ‘pressures in the global economic landscape’ it’s every other country that has to subsidise the US, not the other way around.

To say that I am disgusted is an understatement, especially as I suspect half the reason for this increase is that Sony want to increase the PlayStation 5 price so that there’s less of a leap between it and the PlayStation 6, which is obviously going to be even more expensive.

As a gamer I usually try to ignore all the reports about layoffs and bad management in the industry. Not because I don’t feel sorry for those people but there’s nothing I can do about it and it’s not as if people in every walk of life aren’t having it bad at the moment. But also, I have to admit, I like to treat gaming as my escape from real-world troubles, and I don’t want to feel guilty about enjoying it or constantly worrying that it’s going to fall apart like a house of cards.

But I feel in the last few months it’s become impossible to ignore. I think the turning point was when it became clear Xbox had lost and yet the price of the PlayStation 5 kept going up. And then the Switch 2 came out and it was as if Nintendo didn’t really seem to have a plan (and still don’t seem to), so you began to get the feeling that all these companies are just winging it and stumbling from one disaster to another.

I thought it was bad enough, the story this week that more and more games are costing $300 million or more to make. An amount that’s more than most movies, which is insane to me. This is also a major problem for these companies but it’s got a pretty simple solution… don’t spend that much?

Minecraft and Fortnite aren’t the best-looking games in the world by a long shot. Roblox might be the ugliest, and yet they seem to do all right. You need a certain level of realism to do a game like The Last Of Us but we reached that last gen and the PlayStation 5 has made very little improvement from there.

Not only do we not need the PlayStation 6 but we never needed a PlayStation 5. It didn’t improve the graphics in any major way and it has no special abilities that the PlayStation 4 didn’t. Everyone knows that PlayStation 6 is going to be even worse too, assuming they don’t try and use it to push more AI slop, like that disastrous DLSS 5 tech.

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But it’s too late now. Even though they should go back they won’t and these problems will only get worse over time, just like they’ve been getting worse all generation. I see some people hoping that Sony pulling back from PC and mobile, and maybe live service games, means they’re going to start making more single-player titles again, but I really doubt it.

They’re just going to make the same amount as they currently do because it’s just not possible to make more given the prices involved. What happened to selling the console at a loss because you make so much money on the games? I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as Sony makes less than ever the price of the console has gone up, as if to compensate.

In case you’re wondering, I still have a PlayStation 4, having decided to get a Switch 2 during the last price hike. Now I’m just giving up. The PlayStation 5 is never going to fall in price or even get back to where it was at launch. So forget it, I’ll just buy a PC instead. The worst thing is I don’t even care if Sony games stop appearing on it.

I feel like I’ve been a PlayStation fan too long and the only one that’s getting anything out of that loyalty is Sony.

By reader Cooper

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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