Sony's PlayStation 5 (PS5) price has risen sharply, instead of falling late in the console cycle, IT outlet Engadget reported on Oct. 11.

The PS5 Digital Edition rose by $200 to $599 in 2026 from a launch price of $399 in 2020, and the disc edition increased to $649 from $499.

In the console market, price cuts, bundle sales and discount promotions are common several years after launch. But the PS5 has moved in the opposite direction. The digital edition rose $200 over six years, a bigger increase. The disc edition also rose about 30 percent over the period.

Sony made some changes to the product lineup when it launched the PS5 Slim model in 2023. The digital edition's starting price rose to $449, while the disc version held at $500. There was no performance improvement. Sony reduced internal components and the console's size, and increased storage to 1TB from 825GB. It later lowered storage on the Slim digital model back to 825GB in late 2025.

The price increases came in two rounds. Sony raised each model by $50 in August 2025, and increased prices again by $100 in April 2026. That put current suggested retail prices at about $650 for the disc model and $600 for the digital model. The PS5 Pro also started at $700 in 2024 and rose to $900 after a $50 increase in August 2025 and an additional hike in April 2026.

The report also noted that inflation alone is not enough to explain the current prices. According to the outlet, the digital edition's 2020 price of $399 translates to about $514.9 at current inflation levels, but the actual selling price is $599. The disc model's 2020 price of $499 translates to about $644, leaving a relatively smaller gap with the current price.

A key factor cited is industry-wide shortages of NAND and RAM supply. Rising demand for artificial intelligence, which requires large volumes of high-performance memory, led data centre companies to lock up supply. With a limited number of plants able to produce cutting-edge DRAM and NAND, supply for consumer devices such as laptops and game consoles has declined.

Sony has also mentioned the burden directly. Sony said at a fourth-quarter 2025 investor briefing that rising memory prices are worsening PS5 parts costs and manufacturing expenses. It also said it had secured enough memory supply to match production capacity through the end of 2026. But Sony expected the supply crunch to continue until 2027, and left open the possibility it could affect the next console generation as well.

Sony's console business structure also ties into its pricing policy. Game consoles are typically run not to leave big profits from hardware sales, but to recoup earnings through games, accessories and subscription services. Sony earns fee income from a significant portion of game, downloadable content and other transactions on the PlayStation Store. With PlayStation Plus subscription fees also raised, it shows the old formula of keeping hardware prices low and offsetting profits with long-term service revenue is not working as well as it once did for the PS5.

Against that backdrop, Sony also has plans to stop game discs in 2028. A higher share of digital sales can raise platform profitability over the long term, but for consumers it has become a structure in which console prices and subscription costs rise together.

There are observations that the future price trend will depend on memory supply. If memory prices fall, retail discounts and bundle sales could appear first, followed by adjustments to suggested retail prices. But with current PS5 demand steady and demand particularly strong for the PS5 Pro ahead of the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6), high prices are likely to persist for some time.