Unsurprisingly, Sony bosses considering PS5 price rises due to tariffs

It was only a matter of time really, wasn't it? Sony bosses have revealed they are considering raising the prices of its products due to the impact of global tariffs with its gaming division specifically mentioned as one of the areas that could be affected, meaning the retail price of the PS5 could go up.

Lin Tao, Sony's chief financial officer, said during an earnings call detailing its financial performance for the last quarter and fiscal year ahead that the company needs to find a whopping 100 billion yen to make up for how the current rate of tariffs will impact the company.

That's equivalent to $685 million US dollars at the current exchange rate.

During the call, Tao said: "100 billion yen is assuming the current tariff rates that have been announced.

"In terms of the tariffs, we are not just simply calculating the simple tariffs to come up with 100 billion yen but are thinking about the current available information and looking at the market trend.

"We may pass [this] on to the price and also shipment allocation. We are taking different measures in managing to come up to the 100 billion yen impact."

However Sony expects profit in its gaming division to increase by 16 per cent this financial year due to higher sales of first-party games, hinting there's a lot more to come from PlayStation on the software front.

Hiroki Totoki, Sony CEO, also spoke about the impact of tariffs. He said to help ease the financial burden, the company is considering manufacturing PS5 consoles and components in the US.

"Gaming consoles, these hardwares can of course be produced locally," said Totoki. "I think that would be an efficient strategy.

"PS5s are being manufactured in many areas, whether it's going to be manufactured in the US or not, it needs to be considered going forward."

Sony has already been stockpiling inventory in the US and diversifying the production of its hardware.

The company sold 2.8 million PlayStation 5 (PS5) units in the January-March quarter, a 38 per cent drop compared to a year earlier.

Operating profit at the gaming unit fell by 12.5 per cent over the same period too but Tao did say sales were in line with expectations following the year-end shopping season.

Sony raised the prices of PS5s across Europe last month, including in the UK, citing higher inflation and exchange rate fluctuations.

Tariffs are having a huge impact in the gaming industry.

Nintendo halted preorders of the Switch 2 in the US and Canada to "assess market conditions" after Donald Trump's global tariffs were announced on the same day the console was fully revealed.

Microsoft also recently announced the prices of Xbox Series X/S consoles and associated hardware were rising too, with Series S consoles going up by $80 and Series X consoles a whopping $100, although it's not known if this was a direct result of tariffs.

Not only is it more expensive than ever to manufacture gaming hardware and develop games themselves but Trump's tariffs also add an extra layer of cost for video games companies trading in the US.

Additional reporting from Reuters.

Elsewhere from Indy100, a new Hogwarts Legacy trailer shows off a night and day comparison between the Switch 2 and original Switch and a new Kingdom Hearts game has officially been cancelled with a huge update on another key title.

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