That's why we are in the situation we are in now. Manufacturers don't hesitate to hike the prices even multiple times, and they know the sales will still be okay.

As others have said, seems to be a combination of lower supply and a big demand boost because of GTA 6 (that one everyone was expecting for years now).

Sadly Sony carefully choose the timing to screw people over as best as they could, it's no coincidende they announced they are killing physical games 1 and a half year before they actually do, they did because it was a week into GTA 6 preorder hype.

GTA 6 will prove their point the best, they said to investors, because they won't even reply to customers, that they saw no impact on their business over their announced decision, and with GTA 6 boosting all their metrics, which was a given, it'll look like that is the case, as least up until early next year. How dreadful things can get will only be noticable after the next fiscal year starts.

By what I mean, expect zero goodwill from Sony, I wouldn't rule out they focusing on the PS5 Pro production for the next 2 quarters and we starting to see the base model being the one getting sold out. Or even they slowing down the disc drive production to paint things their way as lower demand for physical, even as apparently the disc drive is a very good seller.

GTA 6 was supposed to "save" the stagnation in gaming growth for the last years of 9th gen systems, but turns out it's going to be the biggest tool of influence for the change for the bad for the whole future of the industry.

From what I saw the Pro was sold out before the extended gta trailer. Sure, it may have sold out because of GTA but I feel like supply issues are more likely. All that being said it is currently in stock at GameStop. Its the best selling console at the moment and that probably has yo do with both GTA and unmet demand.

Yeah this. Sony doesn't want to take too much of a loss on console sales so is limiting how much they produce. I do wonder like last time if they will follow Xbox and increase the price again later this year or early next year. 

More fundamentally i think there is a hard limit to what they can actually produce as the materials needed to make more may simply not be available.  And to your point the actual cost Sony would need to pay for more supply may exceed what they want to pay...let alone what the are willing to subsidize.

It is a low manufactured device, if GTA VI makes the current stock disappear then sure, fans of that one game went nuts.

I wonder how many scalpers

So after doing some more research, it does indeed look like the main culprit is GTA. Which is very interesting. I still reckon that it was already sold out on Amazon though. I think what happened is that people didn't realize it was sold out on Amazon until after the trailer.

This, along with the trailer jtself then triggered a rush on Pro units at other retailers. Best Buy is completely dry (as is Target).

The rush completely destroyed stock at Walmart and all of this, caused a massive rush at GameStop... where it is now also sold out after becoming the number one best seller (the Xbox 25th unit was number one for a while and at $1000 I cant wait to see how it ranks in $ sales)

Also, has anyonethought that a product like the Pro may be more vulnerable to rushes like this simple becauseit isnt stocked like the regular PS5?.

In Germany you can still order it for €899 at amazon.de, but shipping will be "within 3 - 7 months".
If you want it sooner, scalpers offer it on all marketplaces for €1100 - €1500.

Crazy times!

What does this let me to believe ......... let's see ........ another price hike incoming!