Sony said in their last financial results that they will need to monetise their customer base to make up for increasing RAM pricing (whilst at the same time telling us they had enough for the current years production) so I expect there is an increase coming however not to the scale the OP has shared

And people are joking about GTA6 launching at $99.99

*shrugs*

Video games are a luxury, not a necessity.

That is a terrible argument. Our lives would be absolutely miserable if only necessities cost a reasonable amount.

I get the feeling Sony got told to piss off when they were trying to negotiate a price freeze or favorable pricing on RAM/storage, lol.

They don't have that kind of sway to be acting like they're Apple or Nvidia or something to RAM/storage suppliers.

When I was a kid, gaming was for rich people. Yeah, you might have gotten an NES or SNES for Christmas etc. But most of us only got to rent games and would end up owning, maybe a handful, at best, during the course of the system's life. For instance, in today's dollars, we paid something like $150.00 for FF6 when it came out. Sega CD was $520 ish in 1993... which was a failed add on, not even a full console. PS1 was about $650.00 when it launched. Gaming was expensive!

But then things changed with the PS2 generation, and gaming became relatively affordable, and stayed that way for a good long while. Now, it's just going back to being a rich man's game. That's how I see it. I will buy less, be more picky, and adjust accordingly. That would be my advice for other people, as well. Try to adjust and find ways to still enjoy it.

They should raise it higher if anything. Let the kids stick with their Tock Ticks and let the real adults enjoy their consoles. You wanna know what I do when I can’t afford a PS system, I get a second job. Stop crying.

Man, I jumped off that console ship at the right moment—last year—before prices went through the roof and console companies decided to turn their greed dial to max.

First that fat orange pedophile crashes America's economy, now he's crashing the global economy, including gaming. Except this time he's had held from AI boneheads like Elon and Bezos.

Are you great yet, America?

Let my PSN sub run out this year. First time I haven't had Plus in over a decade. The fact deals weren't offered for Essential was the deal breaker.

Still haven't moved on to PS5 either. Same goes for all but one of my friends. A few of them have casually started looking into Series S actually. Neither of them are hardcore, but have only ever had SNY consoles since PS1 or PS2. I think they're getting the GTA itch and are trying to plan ahead. To be honest, I'm really not happy about what's going on at SNY and I'm not thrilled about what looks to be coming from them next gen, as of what info is available right now anyway. Even if they launched an affordable hybrid, I don't need or want a hybrid personally, but I do want to move on from PS4 come next gen without having to spend a fortune. The more people who stop subscribing to Plus, the more likely it is they might try and move on to another ecosystem.