PS5 Pro at €800 sparks debate on purchasing power

PS5 Pro at €800 sparks debate on purchasing power

The PS5 Pro costs €799.99 without a disc drive. With the optical unit, it rises to €920. Eight years ago, the PS4 Pro launched at €400 with a built-in reader. The leap isn't technological; it's an economic model shift. The price gap between the standard console and its enhanced version widened from 33% to 45%, while the absolute cost doubled in less than a decade. This data has triggered a debate that extends far beyond video games.

The central argument is uncomfortable: if average European wages have grown by just 30% over the same period, the real effort required to buy a high-end console has skyrocketed by up to 70%. An electronic device mass-produced with more efficient processes than eight years ago now costs double. It’s not housing. It’s not a root vegetable. It’s packaged silicon.

Why the PS5 Pro costs €800 when the PS4 Pro was €400

Official explanations point to components. Critical analysis points elsewhere: Sony’s stock valuation is at a decade-high. This isn’t a desperate company raising prices to survive; it’s one raising them because it can. The pattern repeats across the sector: Nvidia doubled GPU prices two years ago, and Apple sells devices near €2,000 without public outcry.

Some argue the console is a luxury product no one is entitled to. Comparisons to the Neo Geo, the cult 90s machine for deep pockets, appear in the conversation. But the counterargument holds weight: consoles were always the affordable gateway to next-gen gaming. That was their pact with buyers. The real business model relied on games and peripherals, not hardware. Breaking this pact has consequences.

PC as a viable alternative and the Chinese threat

With €800, you can build a competent computer. Not enthusiast-grade, but capable of running the same titles. The historical barrier between consoles and PCs—entry price—has blurred. The component market, more competitive and dynamic, has faced inflation but offers options closed consoles don’t allow.

Another threat comes from a different angle. China’s gaming industry is no longer a rumor: it produces top-tier titles and has the industrial capacity to launch its own hardware. The gap Sony leaves by inflating its product price is exactly what others can fill. This already peine with electric cars.

The thesis of exhausted capitalism

The discussion drifts toward a broader diagnosis. The dominant methodology in business schools, mockingly summarized as "PowerPointism," involves selling fewer units at much higher prices, cutting production and R&D, and squeezing short-term profits. The result: lost competitiveness, exposure to rivals, and product deterioration.

Outsourcing production to mid-development countries was the first step in this logic. Robotics, which could have maintained local factories, was discarded for immediate savings. Central banks compensate for lost competitiveness with monetary emission, passing the effect to prices. Printing money doesn’t create technology: it creates inflation.

We are poorer, not everything is expensive

Part of the analysis is starker. A €1,200 salary has become the ceiling for most, while living costs have doubled in five years for specific categories: mid-range bikes at €3,000, average cars at €40,000. The recurring conclusion is that the problem isn’t the console’s price, but the loss of purchasing power among those looking at it.

Against this, the skeptical response: terrace spending hasn’t collapsed, and queues to sell out stock repeat with every launch. Supply and demand still function. If no one bought, prices would drop. The question is how long buyers will hold out before saying enough.

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What comes next isn’t written. If the pattern holds, the next generation will arrive with another price jump and another wave of sold-out preorders. If buyers tire, Sony must choose between cutting margins or ceding market share. Recent hardware history suggests the former takes time to materialize.