Sony weighs PS5 price increases as hardware sales slow

Sony's early February earnings call suggests the company plans to extract more revenue from its installed PS5 base as hardware sales slow and the PS6 keeps getting pushed back. CFO Tao Lin noted new PS5 unit sales are declining while monthly active users ticked up in December 2025, and PlayStation Plus revenue "reached a record high" last quarter.

He told shareholders: "Given the stage of our console cycle, our hardware sales strategy can be adjusted flexibly, and we intend to minimize the impact of the increased memory costs on this segment going forward by prioritizing monetization of the installed base to date." That approach could mean higher prices for services like PlayStation Plus, following last year's PS5 hardware price increases.

The industry is already moving in this direction: Microsoft raised Xbox Series X and Game Pass prices twice, and Bloomberg reported Nintendo is weighing a hardware price increase in 2027.

sony, ps5, playstation plus, ps6, hardware sales, price increases, installed base, active users, memory costs, microsoft