“With continued pressures in the global economic landscape, we’ve made the decision to increase the prices of PS5, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal remote player globally. We know that price changes impact our community, and after careful evaluation, we found this was a necessary step to ensure we continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide.”

“The updated recommended retail prices for PS5 consoles are effective starting April 2, 2026 as follows. For all other territories, please check with your local retailer or direct.playstation.com where it is available,” says a Sony Playstation blog post now announcing a special price of $649.99 for a standard PS5, $599.99 for the one without the disc drive, and $899.99 for a PS5 Pro with enhanced graphics and more storage space, effective April 2. Last year Sony jacked up the prices of each model by $50 each while sole competitor Microsoft’s Xbox models – top tier Series X is already at the $649 price point and the lower-performance, disc-less Series S model sits at $399.

All those spikes came after “Liberation Day” last year. The Xbox Series S launched at $299, Series X and PS5 standard at $499, and the PS5 digital at $399 in November 2020 in the weeks after convicted felon President Trump suffered his defeat to Joe Biden. The PS5 Pro debuted at $699 two days after former Vice President Kamala Harris suffered hers to Trump. Now in under two years, solely attributable to the “Golden Age,” both brands’ main models cost $150 more than at launch.

Even that’s underselling how much of a betrayal this is to the MAGA reich’s once-most-prized demographic: This blogger bought a brand new Xbox Series X for $400 in November 2023, because three years in the price was already going down – as is normal with every previous console generation. In March 2019, during the cycle that began in November 2013, the PS4 and Xbox One standard models cost $299 – frequently discounted to $249 – down from that $399 launch price point (No Playstation fanboys are permitted to “Kinect” fact check in the comments).

Now is it fair to raise that, five-plus years in, the very vast majority of gamers already own the console(s) that they were going to buy this generation? Absolutely. Every console gen’s sales are frontloaded given the market’s habits. That does not let the fucking gamer bros who voted for Trump nor the Orange Bowser himself off the hook. Seriously, and this cannot be emphasized enough, if you were crying about “Bidenomics” in 2023 when an Xbox Series X cost $399, then you should do the right thing and admit to everyone that you’re a cunt now that it’s $649.