It was unlikely that I would pick up a PS5 this year or next year, and now it's even less likely that I will pick one up.

Don't think this is a good idea for Sony. The problem is that while inflation is raging, you are going to see a decline in spending on consumer goods. Everyone's budget is going to stretched with food and fuel over the next few months (if not years), so they'll have less to spend on things like video games. We'll likely see a decline overall in consumer goods as supply normalizes and people won't have the same money to spend on TV or stereos. Raising the price on the system just means people will go with other alternatives or not at all. This will likely push people further to PC gaming, which will likely take over Microsoft and Sony's niche over the next few years. Both companies have embraced the platform and third parties are looking at PC as software sales in the next gen have been terrible. Capcom has so far said their main platform is PC.

We're entering a pretty bad market for the game industry and I don't know if Sony is making the best moves. It's not 2013 anymore and the PS5 isn't the PS4.

Whats Xbox got to do with this?

That shouldnt have to fall on the consumer especially when these companies are making record profits. Sony should be eating the cost not the consumers in this instance.

Hardware was never the best way to earn profit, it is all about the software and subscriptions which is what makes up the losses on the hardware.

I agree that they'll be fine. For 2023 I wonder how much this will reduce its sales potential for that year, like if it'll reduce sales by just a couple or few hundred thousand or if it'll be over a million but either way the harm won't be significant.

I dunno, who's not charging $70 for games? Who immediately came out after and said they won't be raising their hardware prices? The same company who said they won't be charging $70 for their games? The same company who was comparing Game Pass to the new PS Plus just before it was revealed? Are XB games and Game Pass even comparable to PS games and PS Plus?

So every single company from the bottom up, can increase prices and pass the buck, but when it lands on the final company prior to the consumer, in this case PS (or XB), you think those companies should have to eat all the extra cost? They don't get to pass the buck as well like everyone else prior?

It wasn't all that long ago where XB tried to take more bucks with XB One through Kinect and DRM, and is only eating the costs now because they have to and because MS can easily afford to, and always has been able to with XB.

I am still confused with what you are trying to say with your first paragraph.

The costs here seems to only exists with Sony at this moment, both Nintendo and MS came out and said they wont be raising their prices on hardware which means Sony has some special costs that doesn't exist with the other brands. 

When Xbox tried to raise the prices on Live, the fans stood up and Xbox backed down, when PS raised the prices of games to $70, the fans defended the decision and now Sony see this loyalty and are now raising the hardware prices and guess what, the fans are defending this decision. I can see what the issue is here.

That's really not rocket science. Nvidia sells its consoles way above manufacturing costs. They are still profitable even if prices increase by 20%

XBox group is siphoning $billions every year from MS to subsidize its consoles. MS is making so much money as a monopoly corporation, they just want to keep their pet project running no matter what.

They only console that has to pay for the whole brunt is the Playstation system.

I'm not the one who brought up the $70 games. What does the current software price have anything to do with the hardware price increase? Are the games and hardware not worth it in general, or are they simply more costly than the competition, which would be XB?

Nin is selling vastly outdated hardware, so they've been making plenty on it. So much that they're likely still making a good buck on it right now.

PS and XB are selling up to date higher end console hardware, and haven't been making much, if any profit at all. Sony said they had broken even on the more expensive SKU only like 6 months before inflation started due to c19. XB can easily afford to eat any hardware losses simply because they're a very small piece of the MS pie, where as PS is a major profit portion for Sony.

No company in their right minds would go from charging $60 for a service to $120 for no reason other than just because. XB also oddly didn't come up with another more reasonable Live price afterwards, they just went right back to $60, which makes no sense if they legitimately needed to charge more. So not only did they not charge more, but gave up the F2P paywall on top of that.

When XB raised the prices for Live, it was to cover up the fact that they wanted to finally make F2P games free like PS, instead of charging for them behind the Live paywall. It was a very smart move to immediately apologize and sell a positive marketing spin that they'd be making F2P games, F2P from then on, as a fake apology for faking to charge more. Sony is simply raising prices a tiny bit due to inflation that everyone is experiencing.

The issue being XB fans seem to forget why XB through MS is being so generous now? That some Sony fans feel their games are more valuable therefore would warrant a higher price tag? That other Sony fans don't agree and just wait for a price drop that they feel is more justified?

People seem to forget that logistics/distribution play a big role in the cost of a console.

PS5 boxes are way more bigger than the Series X/S ones or even the Switch boxes.

The number of units Nintendo and MS can transport compared to Ps5’s is way higher.

It’s not their fault tho.

Sony started making profits on the PS5 when they sold around 10m consoles

Sony Finally Turns a Profit on $499 PS5 - ExtremeTech

This isnt about inflation or economics. Sony's PR will be to defend this decision however when we look between the lines lets see what we find. Sony has already reduced its own cost on PS5's by reducing the weight and are planning on doing this again with a newer model meanwhile raising the costs. Mean while the Series X is still using the launch model with zero changes. Xbox are not planning on raising the price on a console that would cost more to manufacture. Yes MS can eat the costs but so can Sony. Sony earns billions each quarter and is far from a damaged brand. 

Playstation is constantly turning record profits and so raising the console price is not justified. They are happy to affect most countries instead of the US because the US is the main market in the world. Raising their price in the US while their direct competitor is just as strong in the US would be brand suicide. Sony know that the console will sell regardless, weather its sales from customers or sculpers. that $50 price hike is a huge turn over long term.

Consumers shouldnt have to pay for a corp constantly making record billions. Same goes for all brands.