1 week Ago
Sony has announced a price hike for its PlayStation 5 consoles, increasing the cost by 25% in several key markets due to the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, The Guardian reported on Monday. The Japanese tech giant confirmed that starting Monday, the price of the PS5 Digital Edition will rise to £429.99 in the UK and €499.
99 in Europe. However, the standard PS5, which comes with a disk drive, will not see any price change at this time, the report said. The company explained the decision, citing “a challenging economic environment, including high inflation and fluctuating exchange rates.
” According to the report, the price increases will affect markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Oceania. In specific regions, the price hike is more noticeable. In Australia, the standard PS5 will now reportedly retail at A$829.
95, while the digital edition will increase to A$749.95. Similarly, in New Zealand, the standard PS5 will be priced at NZ$949.
95, and the digital edition will cost NZ$859.95, the report further said. Sony’s price adjustment comes in the backdrop of Trump’s trade policies, which have had a major impact on the global technology supply chain.
In particular, Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, extended recently, have affected many electronics manufacturers, including those in Japan. According to the report, Nintendo had in April 2023 postponed preorders for its new handheld console, the Switch 2, citing the need to assess the impact of the tariffs on its supply chain. This delay took place just after the Trump administration’s decision to impose a 24% tariff on Japanese exports to the US.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has reportedly made it clear that Japan would not rush to make major concessions in trade talks with the U.S., even as negotiations are set to take place this week.
Apple, whose products are largely assembled in China, is also bracing for possible price increases. Analysts at investment bank UBS told the Guardian that the cost of an iPhone 16 Max with 256GB of storage could rise by up to 79%, from $1,199 (£915) to around $2,150 (£1,600), due to the cumulative impact of tariffs. Meanwhile, the global stock market has responded with some volatility as Japanese shares rose on Monday after the U.
S. announced a temporary pause on tariffs for some electronics, including smartphones. The Nikkei 225, Tokyo’s index of blue-chip stocks, closed up 1%, the report said.
However, U.S. officials have signaled that the tariff relief will be short-lived.
On Sunday, Trump warned that no country would be exempt from the tariffs, signaling that future trade policies could have lasting effects on the cost of consumer electronics. In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump vowed to launch a national security trade investigation into the semiconductor sector and the electronics supply chain, suggesting that the U.S.
would not “be held hostage” by other countries, especially those he described as “hostile trading nations” like China..
