More PS5 price hikes show we’ve entered a terrible new gaming era

When people talk about the chip crisis threatening the gaming industry, it’s usually framed around the purchase of new products. And sure, building an affordable gaming PC or securing new hardware like the Steam Deck is going to be more difficult going forward. But if you think you’re safe because you already own all the gaming machines you want, I have some tough news for you. The AI tech apocalypse is going to affect everyone.

Possibly, it’s existing users who have already sunk money into a specific gaming ecosystem who are going to be hurt the most. I’m making this prediction based on Sony’s early February earnings call, where CFO Tao Lin detailed the Japanese company’s latest business strategy to shareholders. Games and network services are Sony’s most lucrative ventures, according to the company’s latest financial results. But PS5 sales are slowing down and the PS6 keeps getting pushed back, according to recent reports. Sony’s gaming division is profitable, but how will the company ensure that it keeps making money if it can’t rely on new hardware sales?

The answer, unfortunately, is getting more out of existing users. Lin’s presentation noted that, while sales of new PS5 units are declining, Sony saw a small uptick in monthly active users for the console in December 2025. Revenue from PlayStation Plus, Sony’s gaming subscription service, “reached a record high” last quarter, Lin said. Sony intends to keep negotiating with suppliers to keep costs down on the hardware front, but the trajectory of those negotiations is hard to predict. In the short term, Sony needs to find a way to keep making money.

“Given the stage of our console cycle, our hardware sales strategy can be adjusted flexibly, and we intend to minimize the impact of the increased memory costs on this segment going forward by prioritizing monetization of the installed base to date,” Lin said.

In other words, Sony is seriously considering price hikes for PS5 services like PlayStation Plus. This potential surge comes on the heels of last year’s price increases for PS5 hardware. The only things that might retain their current pricing are PS5 accessories like the DualSense controller — but it’s not like those things are cheap to begin with.

While it remains to be seen just how much Sony might raise prices, there’s reason to suspect this will be the de facto strategy for gaming companies to mitigate rising memory costs. Last year, Microsoft drew ire after two consecutive price hikes for the Xbox Series X and its Game Pass subscription. Earlier this week, a Bloomberg report noted that Nintendo was deliberating a price increase for its own hardware in 2027. The house of Mario already hiked prices for the original Switch and its accessories last year.

Sony’s proposed strategy makes sense. Existing users have already bought in, so they have more of a stake in ensuring they make the most out of their purchase. You can’t play Fortnite with your friends or use essential features like cloud saves without PlayStation Plus. Users can try and play chicken with Sony by threatening to cancel their services, much in the same way people have unplugged from expensive streaming services like Netflix. But for many PS5 owners, a service like PlayStation Plus doesn’t feel optional — which gives Sony all the more power when it comes to pricing. What are you going to do, let your $749.99 purchase become a paperweight?

Regardless of what console you own, if you want to play video games these days, you’re going to pay a premium. And it’s possible it’ll cost you more to maintain the same experience you already have. Depending on how companies like Sony reconfigure their subscription tiers, existing customers might be stuck paying more for a lesser version of the service. In the large scheme of things, having to pay more to keep playing video games isn’t that serious compared to how the RAM crisis might affect other critical industries, like medicine. This pricey new gaming era sucks, though — and it looks like it’s only going to get worse in the months ahead.