Sony’s next-generation console PlayStation 5 and the current-gen PlayStation 4 may come at expensive prices as Sony warns about the price increase. Sony says that if the Trump administration continues its policy of raised tariffs with Chinese exports. The company may have to raise the prices of their consoles in the future.
According to the WSJ, President Trump and his administration have recently raised the tariffs from 10% to 25% on Chinese Goods in May. The administration now wants to expand the $200 billion worth goods to an additional $300 billion. These Chinese goods will also include major video game consoles like Sony’s PlayStation.
In a report in the Wall Street Journal, the CFO of Sony Hiroki Totoki said that the retail price of the PlayStation will be raised if the US government decides to impose a higher tariff on the Chinese made video game consoles.
We believe, and therefore have told the U.S. government, that higher tariffs would ultimately damage the U.S. economy.
Last month in June, Sony and Microsoft had come together expressing their concerns about the increased tariffs on Chinese exports. But that was before the new proposed decision to raise the tariffs even further. If the administration does increase the tariffs, even more, Sony has said that it has to consider its options. The most obvious option would be to bear the production cost on to the consumers, which likely means that consoles would be more expensive.
Other options include Sony and Microsoft to move their manufacturing businesses out of China. Nintendo has already started shifting its production of new Switch consoles from China to Southeast Asia. Having said that, neither Sony nor Microsoft have decided on such a drastic move, and have also denied recent reports suggesting that they might.
Sony’s next-gen PlayStation 5 might come at an even higher price than anticipated if the company decides to raise its prices. The console is already going to contain significant upgrades over the current PlayStation 4 and would be set to launch at $500 without the tariffs.
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