PS5 is the latest gaming hardware to get a price hike

By George Yang August 25, 2022

Sony announced that it is increasing the price of the PlayStation 5 at retail in select markets due to inflation and currency trends. Notably, the price in the U.S. will not be affected.

“The global economic environment is a challenge that many of you around the world are no doubt experiencing,” says PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan in a statement on the PlayStation Blog. “We’re seeing high global inflation rates, as well as adverse currency trends, impacting consumers and creating pressure on many industries.”

Recommended Videos

The price increase will impact both the digital and disc versions of the console. The new prices are as follows:

Europe
- PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – 550 euros
- PS5 Digital Edition – 450 euros
U.K.
- PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – 480 British pounds
- PS5 Digital Edition – 390 British pounds
Japan (starting on September 15, 2022)
- PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – 60,478 yen (including tax)
- PS5 Digital Edition – 49,478 yen (including tax)
China
- PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – 4,299 yuan
- PS5 Digital Edition – 3,499 yuan
Australia
- PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – $800 AUD
- PS5 Digital Edition – $650 AUD
Mexico
- PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – 14,999 Mexican pesos
- PS5 Digital Edition – 12,499 Mexican pesos
Canada
- PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive – $650 CAD
- PS5 Digital Edition – $520 CAD

The video game market has been hit hard due to the global semiconductor shortage, which is certainly one of the factors that lead to this price increase. It’s uncertain whether the price increase will eventually come to the U.S., as Sony can always change its mind in the future.

Sony also isn’t the only company to increase the price of its products. Meta hiked up the price for Quest 2 by $100 last month. A few weeks ago, Nintendo confirmed that it would not increase the price of the Switch, while Microsoft has not publicly stated anything regarding the price of the Xbox Series X/S.

Topics

George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…

Gaming

PS Plus adds 2021’s ‘Game of the Year’ but loses Stray in July

The main cat from Stray looking into the foreground with cyberpunk buildings behind him

Sony confirmed the next batch of games coming to and leaving its PlayStation Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium game catalogs. There are lots of great new additions, with The Game Awards' 2021 Game of the Year, It Takes Two, headlining the batch, while two Twisted Metal games also arrive ahead of its Peacock TV show. That said, PlayStation Plus' catalog will lose Stray, the viral cat game from July 2022, which was the first day one release on PlayStation Plus Extra.

Here's a complete list of PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium games coming to the service on July 18.

Gaming

Fortnite Artifact Axe: how to destroy stones and best location

Animated image showing Fortnite Artifact Axe

Anyone who plays Fortnite long enough will come to love its yearly summer festivities, and as usual, this year's Summer Escape Event has proven to be a great time for players looking to engage in fun quests and earn new cosmetics. This week provides a new quest that tasks you with destroying 10 stones in battle royale mode, which offers you the reward of a new harvesting tool known as the Artifact Axe. If you're wondering what qualifies as a stone and how to destroy them, we'll give you the details below.
How to destroy stones in Fortnite to earn the Artifact Axe
First of all, you've probably hidden behind some of these stones before because, well, the game is actually just referring to the large rocks you can find scattered all across the map. Some are larger than others, but they're all easily identifiable and can be destroyed by smacking them repeatedly with a harvesting tool. In other words, you're quite likely to run across plenty of them playing naturally, especially if you spend any time in forests or along the coast.

If you're wanting to know of a spot that will help you knock the quest out quicker, you can try heading to the beach to the south of Kenjutsu Crossing at the bottom of the map.

Gaming

This trick guarantees you’ll get bots only in every Fortnite match

how to play split screen fortnite duo

Fortnite is one of the biggest names in gaming, and it's quite easy to understand how it became a global phenomenon. The beloved battle royale is overflowing with things to do, and weekly updates ensure that there are always new weapons and items to engage with, fresh locales to visit on its ever-changing map, and plenty of XP to earn via daily and weekly challenges.

With so much to keep players coming back for more, you can be certain finding a lobby filled with other folks is an easy thing to do. But you've also probably noticed that many matches -- particularly in lower and mid-tier lobbies -- mix bots in with real players. This helps to fill out lobbies faster so you can get in and play consistently, and it also serves as a way to ensure that everyone in the match has a few opportunities to eliminate some baddies regardless of their skill level.