I have no need for a new PS5. But my body sort of goes "Buy buy buy" whenever something is starting to get harder to find. Sort of hate my mind for it, but at least I have the strength to ignore it and not buy it.

PS5 Pro is sold out completely in all major stores in my country (Saudi Arabia) when i checked moments ago.

This really makes me hate GTA6.  Now Sony will think they can charge hardware prices like current ones even when component prices come down.

Having said that, this also confirms my #1 principle for gaming: "You can charge whatever you want for hardware as long as your games are good enough, but those games better be really damn good."  I bought a new $1000 PC in 1998 to play Ultima Online, because I couldn't get an experience like that anywhere else.  It does seem like there are a fair amount of gamers out there who will pay just about any amount just to play GTA6.

This does send the wrong message to Sony though.  I hate GTA6.

This is incorrect.  Sony would not be charging this much money if they costs weren't as high as they are.  It will always be in their best interest to keep hardware costs down as it helps promote uptake of games and services which are a lot more lucrative to them.  The more people you can get into the ecosystem... the more actual profit you can earn.  They would much prefer to be able to sell the PS5 for 399.  Especially now that there is a game that could move as many units as GTA. 

This sounds good on paper, but the reality is that once they see people buying overpriced hardware, they are going to continue overpricing hardware.

For most of gaming history price cuts on consoles were the norm, but after the Switch launched, both Nintendo and Sony stopped cutting the price of the Switch and PS4.  This all happened before AI drove up hardware costs.  Sony and Nintendo simply made high profit margins on PS4 and Switch hardware, when hardware margins were slim to none in previous generations.  Basically, they figured out they could get away with charging more for hardware, so they did.

Same type of thing is happening right now with the PS5.  Expect baseline prices for hardware to stay high even after the AI bubble bursts.  If the console manufacturers can make money on hardware, then they certainly will.

This is incorrect.  The hardware is not overpriced.  Sony's own cost has increased.  Thats the part you are not understanding.  It was suggested that at 750 USD the Xbox Series X is still losing money.  NAAD prices are expected to double again next year.  That means a componet that used to cost Sony 80 USD will now cost them 320 USD.  None of you hypothetical evil corpration stuff really matters until actual costs are under control.  Until RAM prices and Storage prices return to normal, until you can actually build a decent PC without going broke.

Both things are true at once but I think the reality is PS5 sales were in the pits for a while and a game like GTA comes across once every 15 years. You can't base hardware pricing on a game that will :

1. Only arrive at the end of a generation or not at all (PS4 didn't get its own GTA).

2.The audience driving current hardware demand make up a tiny portion of actually PS5 sales. If there are 10m people eager to buy a $600-800 PS5 just for GTA that's cute but you can't survive off a 10m audience. Sony wants the 50-80m people who will actually keep their ecosystem alive and invest in other games etc. That majority audience is still price sensitive, hence PS5 sales being down so much in Q1 and Q2.

What I think this teaches Sony (and they already probably knew this from existing data) is that they can get away with a premium/high margin product next to whatever is the entry price product is. The high margin product will sell to that 10-20m price insensitive tech or FOMO consumer, whilst they promote the cheaper entry point to the mainstream. 

Guys its not that complicated at all.  All computing hardware has gone up massively. Sony is not special.  They are gonna be effected by it like everyone else.  For my business I have to buy hardware and yes the costs have skyrocketed.  LOL, sitting here contemplating Sony releasing a high margin product is not realistic.  They are gonna charge approximately the cost of the console minus 100 USD.  And thats because Sony is gonna be paying the same exhorbinate prices as everyone else because they are not special.   Same goes for Microsoft and the same has already happened to Valve. Companies have to function in the real world... not in gaming forums. If you think the prices are crazy (they are), you can thank the AI companies for that. 

I don't blame them, as the memory prices aren't logical right now. I guess it's going to be tough for PS5 to outsell Switch 2 this year, based on Sony's CEO statement. They will not increase the production, as this will mean they gonna sell at loss. Maybe it's better that way than having to pay $749 for PS5 standard edition.

I'm not saying PS5 is a high margin product or that the price is unfair, but that in this economy, for the PS6 they will charge closer to face value for a higher value premium SKU versus just taking a loss on an attempted mainstream SKU. Essentially I think Sony will remove the cap on the upper end of hardware cost and lean into including a very high premium device sold at value/profit versus 2 SKUs sold at loss. Mimicing a bit of what we have seen in the software space regarding GTA's $100 ultimate edition being the majority of pre-orders