California Governor Gavin Newsom is cheekily blaming the PlayStation 5's recent price hikes across the United States on current U.S. President Donald Trump, using his platform on Twitter to call out the top executive for his perceived troubling financial policies. All versions of the PlayStation 5 are now $50 more expensive in the United States, and Newsom seems to be indicating that Trump's heavy reliance on tariffs is to blame.
A recent PlayStation Blog Post announced that, starting August 21, price increases for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, and PlayStation 5 Pro would be going into effect exclusively for the United States market. This move bumps up the recommended retail price of a new standard PS5 to roughly $550, a PS5 Digital Edition to $500, and a PS5 Pro to $750 across the country.
GameStop Combats PS5 Price Increase With Special Offer
In response to Sony's sudden price increase of all its PlayStation 5 consoles, GameStop offers gamers a special offer, but only for a limited time.
Gavin Newsom Calls Out Trump for PS5 Price Hike
The same day the PlayStation price hikes were announced, a new post from Newsom's Twitter account singled out Trump as the reason customers in the U.S. Will be paying more for Sony's brand of game consoles, with the implication that Trump's tariff policies are impacting the gaming market. Sharing a tweet posted by the New York Post about the price hikes, Newsom simply commented, "Great work, @realDonaldTrump!!" An early Democratic front-runner for the 2028 presidential election, along with former vice president Kamala Harris and former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, Newsom has earned a lot of criticism from right-wing media over his recent Twitter activity, which often mockingly apes the president's own frequent use of bragging, name-calling, and an all-caps format to spread his message.
In its announcement, Sony credited "a challenging economic environment" as the reason behind its increased prices. The company did not mention tariffs specifically, though warnings from multiple financial analysts over tariffs have predicted bad news for the video game industry since before the start of Trump's second term in January. One recent report from the Consumer Technology Association predicted gaming consoles specifically could rise in price by 69.4 percent.
Video game consoles getting more expensive as time moves forward from their launch isn't a normal occurrence, but Sony isn't the only company that has recently raised its prices in the U.S. Market. On August 3, a similar change saw the Nintendo Switch and some of its accessories get more expensive in the United States by $30 to $50 per console, depending on the model. This pricing strategy has yet to affect the Nintendo Switch 2, though company president Shuntaro Furukawa has indicated that Nintendo officials are keeping a close eye on conditions in the global and U.S. Markets, indicating that further price increases for its products are a possibility for the future.
