Enshittishrinkflation, the mashup no one asked for
Another “tough decision” by a billion-dollar company
It’s always been more expensive to buy a PlayStation 5 in Europe than it has been in the United States. And it’s about to get worse. Again.
Based on some multilingual investigations by billbil-kun at dealabs.com, the next version of the PS5 Slim is set to release with 175 fewer gigs of storage than the current model The price, however, isn’t going to change.
Dollars and cents (and euros)
Way back in Nov. 2020, the PS5 launched with two editions, standard and digital. The digital edition without an optical drive cost $399 in the US and €399 in Europe. At the time, the exchange rate was about $1.18 to €1, meaning that the US version was, on paper at least, 15% cheaper. Today, the exchange rate is back to about the same place after climbing for about four years and then plunging again around late Jan. 2025. No idea why that might be (/s).
In 2022, Sony raised the price of both PS5s in Europe by €50, citing global inflation, making the digital edition €449. The price wasn’t increased in the US (and, at the time, the exchange rate was about 1:1).
In Nov. 2023, the PlayStation’s hardware and case were revised into the PS5 Slim. The reduction in overall size came with a $50 price increase in the US, but remained €449 in Europe. The euro and the dollar were still about 1:1, but the dollar was dropping in the run-up to the US election (which is normal). Notably, though, the introduction of the Slim included an upgrade to a 1TB SSD.
In April of 2025, again citing high inflation, Sony raised the price of the digital PS5 by €50 in Europe.