Sony manages to make the PS5 even less desirable

Good news, everyone! The price of the PlayStation 5 is changing! I’m sure this will be incredibly welcome news to those of us presently struggling through a cost-of-living crisis, skyrocketing energy bills, absurdly high inflation and all manner of other financial-related shenanigans. Sure, a PS5 is a luxury item, but a price drop would be a great way to get more people on board with the system and improve morale in gen– sorry, someone keeps trying to get my attention. What is it?

They’re increasing the price? Oh. Oh dear. Oh dear me. Oh dear, dear, dear, sweet, Sony.

Yes, that’s right, on the grounds of “the global economic environment, including high inflation rates”, the recommended retail price for the Sony console it remains near-impossible to impulse purchase is actually going up, with immediate effect.

That means European gamers hoping to nab a PS5 with a disc drive will have to cough up €549.99 for the privilege, while UK gamers are looking at £479.99. The digital-only version, meanwhile, is set to increase to €449.99 and £389.99.

Sony president Jim Ryan says that “this price increase is a necessity given the global economic environment and its impact on SIE’s business”, but attempts to reassure us that Sony’s “top priority continues to be improving the PS5 supply situation so that as many players as possible can experience everything that PS5 offers and what’s still to come.”

Here’s the thing, though: what, exactly, does PS5 offer at this point? I can’t remember the last time I saw a game announced for PlayStation platforms that wasn’t coming to PS4 as well as PS5. Returnal? Probably Returnal. Even big-name games like Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin and Gran Turismo 7 got PS4 versions — and both of those games run just fine on the older hardware. Sure, they run better on PS5, but that doesn’t make them a killer app, an essential exclusive or any real reason to pick up a PS5.

Niche-interest publishers have been cautious to adopt PS5, also; while Idea Factory, makers of the Neptunia series, took a tentative step into next-gen exclusivity with Neptunia Re:Verse, the next game in the series, Sisters vs Sisters, is coming to PS5 also — and the company’s other titles quite sensibly remain focused on the lucrative Switch-owning otaku market, who have seamlessly transitioned from Vita to Nintendo’s platform over the course of the last few years.

The situation is the same for indie developers. With many indie games being built in platform-agnostic engines such as Unity and Godot, there’s absolutely no reason for an indie developer to limit their audience by making a title exclusive to PS5; in fact, they’d be actively shooting themselves in the foot to do so, and in many cases it’s likely not worth the additional time and expense required to make a PS5-specific port of a game when you can just put out a PS4 version and have PS5 owners run that on their systems instead.

The current PS5 exclusive list makes for sad reading, too. Astro’s Playroom? The one genuinely worthwhile exclusive, but probably not a system-seller. Demon’s Souls? A lot of people prefer the PS3 original. Destruction AllStars? Have you even heard of this game prior to today? I hadn’t, which doesn’t bode well for how active its multiplayer servers might be. Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart? Decent, probably not a system-seller.

It goes on. Returnal? Awesome, but strongly rumoured to be coming to PC. Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade? Already available on PC. Spider-Man Remastered? Available on PC. Ghostwire: Tokyo? Available on PC. Gran Turismo 7? Available on PS4, and perfectly acceptable on that platform. Forspoken? Coming to PC. Final Fantasy XVI? Potentially a system-seller, but almost certainly coming to PC… and not out yet. Horizon: Call of the Mountain? PSVR2-exclusive, making it even more limited in audience than if it was just a regular PS5 exclusive.

With that in mind, Sony is absolutely, completely and utterly barking mad if they think that anyone is going to pay nearly five hundred quid for a PlayStation 5 right now — particularly given that they still haven’t successfully recovered their reputation from their atrocious treatment of Japanese games and developers, including their own studios.

And with the console coming up on its second anniversary, the price increase, limited availability and lack of any really compelling reasons to pick one up, I think we’ve reached a point where we can fairly confidently say that Sony has made an absolutely colossal mess of PlayStation 5.

At this point I would genuinely rank the PlayStation 5 as a worse disaster than Vita, because at least Vita developed a passionate and enthusiastic audience of indie fans and otaku that continues to love that gorgeous little handheld to this day. What has PS5 got? A pretty good roguelike that probably won’t remain an exclusive much longer? Yeah, you done goofed, Sony. Sort it out. Or, y’know, don’t; I can think of many other things I can spend that 500 quid on.

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Pete Davison

Pete is Rice Digital's editor, and a proud champion of any and all games involving pretty girls hanging out, saving the world or both. His first waifu was Rit from Rod Land.

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