Sony Sets April 2 Global PS5 Price Hike; PS5 Pro Climbs to $899

Console hardware has rarely grown costlier mid-cycle; the last comparable bump was Sega’s 1990 price jump on the Genesis after the 1988-89 DRAM spike, and even the PS3’s infamous $599 launch in 2006 didn’t see later hikes. Today’s move fits a longer arc: since 2020, silicon scarcity and AI-driven demand have shifted bargaining power from consumer electronics to data-center buyers, reversing decades of falling component costs that underpinned cheaper consoles from the NES ($199 in 1985) to the PS4 ($399 in 2013). If memory markets stay tight—as Micron and SK Hynix predict into 2030—$800-plus flagship consoles and $250 accessories could become the norm, nudging gaming toward a premium hobby and accelerating cloud and subscription models. On a 100-year timeline, this moment tests whether Moore’s-Law-fueled deflation in personal entertainment tech has hit a structural wall; if so, the industry may resemble pre-1970s arcade economics, where access, not ownership, dominated the business model.