Last month, Sony increased the annual prices of all three subscription plans (Essential, Extra, and Premium) in the PlayStation Plus membership by around 30%. Since then, PlayStation users have been quite unhappy, asking for the reason behind the steep price hike. Now, Eric Lempel, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment has commented on the matter, revealing the reasons why the company had to increase the prices of the PlayStation Plus subscription plans.
In an interview with Barron’s, Lempel was asked “There’s been some criticism over the size of the recent PS Plus subscription price increases—roughly 30%. How do you justify the hikes to the consumer?” Answering that question, he said that Sony had to take this step to “adjust to market conditions”. Lempel also pointed out that the company hadn’t increased the prices of the PlayStation Plus membership for many years, in many regions around the globe. According to him, that’s another reason for the price hike.
“We want to make PlayStation Plus great. With our reboot last year and introducing the tier system, a lot of consumers have recognized that there’s a lot of value in PlayStation 5. Like practically everything else in the world, we have to look at our pricing and we have to adjust to market conditions. I’m happy to say, unlike a lot of other subscription services out there, we haven’t touched the PlayStation Plus pricing for 85% of the world in many years. So, this was the first time we did something there.”
Sony says no shortage of PlayStation 5 stock this holiday season
Since Sony launched the PlayStation 5, the supply of the gaming console hasn’t been steady, mainly due to the global pandemic, leading to its shortage in many countries. Fortunately, that’s not an issue anymore. With the supply chain back to normal, Lempel says that Sony has abundant stock of the PS5. “We’re excited that anyone who wants a PlayStation 5 will be able to get one”, he added. In fact, Lempel expects this holiday season to be “one of the strongest seasons in our history in terms of console sales.”
