Sony recently confirmed that it will make the PlayStation 5 more expensive in most regions effective immediately. Naturally, the response was for gamers to question if Microsoft and Nintendo would follow suit. For now, this isn’t the case. In a statement sent to Windows Central, Microsoft confirmed that it doesn’t plan on raising the price of the Xbox Series S/X in the US, UK, and Europe. Meanwhile, Nintendo president, Shuntaro Furukawa, revealed to Nikkei Asia that the company is “not considering” a price increase for the uber-popular Nintendo Switch. At the time, the Nintendo head claimed that it did not want to price people out of getting their hands on the hybrid console. Furukawa also revealed in the same interview that fans shouldn’t expect to see new Switch hardware this fiscal year. Keep in mind that both statements aren’t too different from what Sony said earlier this year when it didn’t flat out deny a price change for the PS5. Although in the case of Nintendo, the Japanese company does have a creative way around price increases. Instead of flat-out making their consoles more expensive, Nintendo will introduce an “upgraded” variant. For example, the Switch OLED had and still does have a retail price of $349.99. This represents a much more significant pricing change that Nintendo tried to sweeten up by making the base Switch 10-20% less expensive in the UK and Europe. Most likely, both Nintendo and Microsoft are keeping an eye on how critics and audiences will respond to the more expensive PS5. The majority of the gaming industry like Sony and Activision Blizzard are starting to post lower numbers following the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, we can expect all gaming companies to look to keep their revenues up as people start to spend less time and money on video games.
