A recent update on the official PlayStation blog confirmed bleak rumors, as the recommended retail price of the PS5 increased in many global markets. Jim Ryan, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s president and CEO, attempted to explain the reasoning, but the public has already responded to this seeming betrayal of trust, relating stories of stagnant wages and increased cost of living. Video games are certainly a non-essential purchase, but gaming has become a mainstream source of entertainment rather than a niche interest.
A few years into a console generation, fans have typically expected price drops for existing consoles, or revised models with a streamlined design. The price of Xbox Series X/S consoles is staying the same, making the PS5 a less attractive purchase. More importantly, it embodies the current trend of companies callously and overtly disregarding the interests of consumers simply to appease stockholders and maximize profit.
The blog entry from Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, notes “high global inflation rates” and “adverse currency trends” as the rationale for the price hike. This is undeniably bad news for consumers, as PS5 consoles remain difficult to obtain through retail channels, and now many who can find a retail PS5 will have to pay more for it. The global inflation rates mentioned have not corresponded with wage increases in most regions, making this a case where Sony is nakedly covering its bottom line at the consumers’ expense.
Empty Platitudes In Messaging The PS5 Price Hike Betray Indifference Towards Consumers
In Sony’s official announcement of the PS5 price increase the company speaks to its fans, acknowledging that “the global economic environment is a challenge that many of you around the world are no doubt experiencing,” and that these trends are “impacting consumers.” It follows this feigned empathy with statements that the price increase is a “necessity” due to the economy’s “impact on SIE’s business,” when it is inarguably a choice to put profitability over accessibility.
In trying times, people deserve whatever distraction they can find from the pressures of life and the tragic news that fills the headlines every day. With gaming holding a place of near ubiquity alongside films and television as a source of needed escape from stress, any attempts to justify the price increase fail to hold up to scrutiny. Sony acknowledges that consumers are struggling in the current economic market but concluded that the company does not need to when it can simply charge more for a highly sought-after piece of hardware.
A request for a Final Fantasy 16 PC release is trending on Twitter in Japan as a response to the price hike announcement. The upcoming entry in the beloved JRPG series has been announced as a PS5 exclusive, but with PS5s set to increase in price in Japan, fans are requesting that Square Enix port the game to PC instead of leaving it within Sony’s increasingly exclusive walled garden. Other recent ports of previously PlayStation exclusive games suggest there is hope for an eventual PC port of FF16 and other high-profile exclusives, adding to the reasons consumers have for passing on a PS5 purchase.
Anti-Consumer Practices Like The PS5 Price Hike Show Stockholders Matter, Not Fans
A smaller number of Sony fans have defended the price increase, exhibiting a disturbing trend that goes beyond fandom, where consumers conflate the interests of large corporations with their own. The tendency to play armchair executive has become somewhat prevalent, as a few confused fans place the interests of the companies that make products they enjoy above the well-being of their fellow consumers. Xbox’s legal firm alleges Sony pays to blocks games from Game Pass. If this is accurate, it stands as another clear anti-consumer tactic, alongside the price increase for PS5 hardware.
Aggressively anti-consumer practices are nothing new to the entertainment industry, but the more troubling shift is the audacity of such moves in the modern era. Token attempts at placating the consumer base, like the empty platitudes included in the PlayStation blog post, are increasingly lackluster. Companies like Sony betray indifference towards fans, as more public-facing communications are aimed at stockholders instead of the people who actually buy the products. The PlayStation 5 price increase is decidedly bad news for gaming fans. It is yet another example of a clear anti-consumer move falsely framed as a necessity, rather than a choice to put profitability above any interest in maintaining a favorable reputation with consumers.
Source: PlayStation Blog
Be the first to comment