Five years after launch, the PS5 isn’t getting cheaper but instead is going to get $50 more expensive. All three of the current models of the PlayStation 5 will be impacted by this price increase, including the regular PS5, PS5 digital edition, and the PS5 Pro. This comes soon after Nintendo confirmed that it would be raising the price on its original Nintendo Switch consoles, both of which are likely done as a result of rising import tariffs.
Posted on the official PlayStation Blog, Sony confirmed that it will be increasing the price of all of its PS5 console models by $50 in the US tomorrow, August 21. The post reads in part, “Similar to many global businesses, we continue to navigate a challenging economic environment. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to increase the recommended retail price for PlayStation 5 consoles in the U.S. starting on August 21.”
As of now, there will be no changes to any official PS5 accessories.
Starting tomorrow, the new price of each PS5 model will be as follows:
The PS5 price has already increased in other regions, sometimes multiple times, but this is the first time the US market has been impacted. The reason given of “a challenging economic environment,” hints at tariffs being the root cause of the price increases.
Previously, both Nintendo and Xbox raised console prices in the US, with Switch units costing around $30 more, depending on the model, and Xbox consoles each going up by around 20%.
This is the first generation in which console prices have not gone down over time, but actually increased. We’re also seeing game prices inflate to $80, with Mario Kart World being the first major title to set that new bar. While PlayStation hasn’t announced any plans to increase the price of its games as of now, this price hike on hardware indicates that more expensive games aren’t too far off.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.