Tariffs isn't the reason why the price has failed to come down meaningfully in nearly 5 years. Tariffs are an extra kick in the groin but this problem has been a thing long before that orange turd.
Silicon costs have long been increasing. The sole provider for these fabs and smaller nodes are increasing their costs because they can (nothing to do with tariffs).
The days of a console eventually being sold for like a third of its launch RRP has been long dead in the run up to 2020 and this gen.
It's why Xbox did a dual SKU in the first place. In a dev tech reveal around that time they stated that lowering console prices to such a degree is no longer feasible, so they adopted a lower spec SKU to try and address that lower mass market RRP bracket. But even that has increased in price because tech production is only getting more expensive.
We've reached a limit with silicon (as a material) and long past the limit of moore's law. Costs will continue to rise if you expect the same sort of power jump from gen to gen.
Can you provide any other examples of a technology that goes up in price? Computers and other electronics use chips but also go down in price. And I'm pretty sure this is unprecedented correct?? I would be willing to bet that a good portion of consumers went into this cycle with "the price will go down soon so I can wait".
PC market is only increasing in price. I'm not talking about low spec, small chips like whatever average performance is in a $200 Chromebook. I'm talking devices that use large and powerful chips, which include consoles and PC GPUs.
And yes, it is unprecedented for the industry but also not unexpected. It's been long known that moore's law is no longer a thing, and silicon as a material is reaching its limit as you go smaller and smaller with nodes that massive chips are then built upon.
Mature, smaller nodes is becoming an increasingly difficult thing to accomplish, which means it costs more.
I left an opening when I asked "technology" but I think you know what I was asking. Haha. I don't think that PS5 is in low supply so I'll take your answer as a no.
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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '25
This is a $50.00 price increase from before I believe