Are rising video game hardware prices making gaming a luxury hobby?
Video game consoles are pricey. What does that mean for gamers?
It was once common wisdom among gamers that buying a console a few years after its release was a smarter financial decision than picking it up on launch day.
Not only would you be able to tap into a great library of games built over the generation, but the price of the consoles also decreased over time.
For instance, Sony’s PlayStation 4 launched at $400 for the console alone in 2013, but not even five years later, the company was selling bundles of the console with an included game for around $250.
But in 2026, the opposite is true.
A brand new base Sony PlayStation 5, starts at $600, a $100 increase from when it was released in 2020. Starting in September, a Nintendo Switch 2 will run you $500, a $50 increase from its original $450 price tag just last year.
Among the most egregious of price hikes was that of Valve’s Steam Deck, the company’s PC handheld, which jumped from a base price of $549 to $789.
Alexandra To, a computer science and game design professor, said that these rising prices worry her. Every year, she asks students about what games they are playing, and over the past few years, the diversity and breadth of games has shrunk, she said.
Anyone paying attention to the consumer hardware market shouldn’t be surprised by these price hikes, Northeastern experts told Northeastern Global News. Computer component shortages driven by AI demands, global tariffs, and disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz, the Middle Eastern shipping route key to global trade, are likely the biggest economic factors at play here, they said.
But as prices continue to rise, will gaming increasingly become a hobby only the well off can afford?
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“If you’re paying $1,000 to get a console and a handful of controllers and a couple of games, then clearly it’s a luxury good,” said Mark Sivak, a professor of art and design and engineering at Northeastern University.
Sivak said that traditionally video game console players haven’t been considered the high-end market – that tended to be reserved for PC gamers — but these price increases are surely pushing them closer to that territory.
At the same time, he cautioned against painting these increases with a broad brush because the gaming space includes more than gamers looking for a home console or high-end gaming experience.
Many gamers – particularly younger ones — are getting their fill playing massively popular free-to-play games like Fortnite or League of Legends on the phones and tablets they already own, he said.
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In this way, the gaming space has become bifurcated, he said. On the low end, you have the free-to-play market, which is becoming a bigger part of the overall games industry pie, accounting for over 85% of all revenue in the industry, according to the firm Visual Capitalist.
And on the other higher end, you have your console and high-end PC crowd, which is increasingly becoming more expensive to enter.
He said he expects this delta between the segments to continue to widen in the years to come as hardware prices continue to rise.
“It will become harder and harder to sell people to buy a dedicated game console unless [hardware makers] have a really compelling use case,” he said.
Already, users are voting with their wallets. In May, Sony reported that it saw a 46% year-over-year drop in PS5 sales.
Even with the high prices, gamers are a scrappy bunch, To said, and there are affordable and sustainable options for those who want to game.
One of the best ways is sharing games among family and friends. Local libraries also often have games and game systems that can be rented out, she said.
“Also, give yourself permission to have a little splurge and not feel guilty about it,” she said. “As long as you are taking care of your basic needs, it’s actually good for you to engage in joy and pleasure and not be in survival mode 24/7.”
