Sony has raised the price of the PlayStation 5 in some markets

The company is asking consumers to pay more for console hardware in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, EMEA, and the UK.PS5 digital price in UK would rise to £430 and €500 in Europe as Japanese games developer cites ‘challenging economic environment’

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) executive Isabelle Tomatis said PS5 prices in Australia and New Zealand would also rise – including for physical versions that have a disc drive.

Piers Harding-Rolls, research director at Ampere Analysis, said the disc-free version of the PS5 had formed a larger share of Sony’s total sales over the last 18 months.

He said this new price adjustment had brought “the digital edition more into alignment with the standard version”.

The Japanese company said the decision was made in response to a “challenging economic environment.”

The technology industry has been grappling with the possible impact of President Trump’s tariffs on its supply chains. Rival Japanese game developer Nintendo unveiled its new handheld console, the Switch 2, the day before Trump launched his barrage of “reciprocal” tariffs on foreign goods on 2 April. A few days later, the company postponed preorders of the device in the US, as it said it would need to assess the potential effect of tariffs.

Japan was hit with a 24% tariff on its exports to the US on Trump’s “liberation day” on 2 April. Like most of Trump’s new tariffs, they have been paused for 90 days. However, the Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, said on Monday that his country did not plan to make big concessions in negotiations with the US and that it would not rush to reach a deal.

Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based games consultancy Kantan Games, said its likely Sony will also raise PS5 prices in the U.S.

“I would be very surprised if Sony was able to keep the PlayStation prices in the US stable. Now is the ‘right’ time for the company to hike prices because user backlash would be comparably limited,” Toto told CNBC on April 15.

“So yes, I expect Sony to raise prices in the U.S. eventually, once it’s at least a bit more clear where exactly tariffs are headed.”