Sony has raised the price of its PlayStation 5 by 25%, as the gaming industry feels the effects of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The Japanese gaming company announced that it had made the “difficult choice” to increase the price of the console’s digital edition to £429.99 in the UK and €499.99 in Europe, effective Monday. The standard PS5, which includes a disk drive, will not see any price increase.
Sony attributed this price hike to “a challenging economic climate, with high inflation and variable exchange rates” in certain markets across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Oceania.
In Australia, the price of the standard PS5 will increase to A$829.95, while the digital version will go up to A$749.95. In New Zealand, the standard console will rise to NZ$949.95, and the digital version will cost NZ$859.95.
The tech industry has been navigating potential repercussions from President Trump’s tariffs on their supply chains. Competitor Nintendo recently unveiled its new handheld console, the Switch 2, just a day before Trump initiated a series of “reciprocal” tariffs on imported goods on April 2. Shortly after, the company delayed preorders for the device in the US, indicating the need to evaluate the tariffs’ potential impact.
Japan faced a 24% tariff on its exports to the US on Trump’s “liberation day” on April 2. Most of these tariffs were paused for 90 days, but Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba stated on Monday that Japan does not intend to make significant concessions in talks with the US and will not rush to finalize a deal. Discussions between the two nations are scheduled for this week.
Companies like Apple, whose products are predominantly assembled in China, are also preparing for increased expenses. Analysts from UBS warn that the cost of an iPhone 16 Max, featuring 256GB of storage, could surge by 79%, rising from $1,199 (£915) to approximately $2,150 (£1,600), due to an all-encompassing tariff of 145%.
Despite the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Trump’s trade policies, Japanese stocks saw an uptick on Monday after the US announced a temporary hold on tariffs for certain electronics, including smartphones. The Nikkei 225, which tracks blue-chip stocks in Tokyo, finished the day up 1%.
Nevertheless, US officials indicated on Sunday that the reprieve on import tariffs for smartphones, laptops, and other electronics from China will be brief, with Trump warning that no one would be “exempt from responsibility”.
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In a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, the president vowed to initiate a national security trade inquiry into the semiconductor industry and “the entire electronics supply chain”.
“We will not allow ourselves to be held ransom by other nations, especially unfriendly trading countries like China,” he stated.
