Japanese video game industry analyst David Gibson has some ill portents for PlayStation’s future.
Last week, Gibson came out to correct no less than Japanese news outlet Nikkei, revealing that much of the manufacturing of the Switch 2 has been shifted outside of China to Vietnam.
Most recently, Gibson reacted to news of the price increases of Switch 2 accessories in the US, while the console and games themselves maintained their price. He said this on Twitter:
“This is as expected…they can afford the risk of tariffs because of Vietnam production and COGS lower than the market realizes. But Sony has 90%+ from China and price is likely to rise to $999+ while Switch 2 at $449.”
While this statement was abbreviated, he made sure to clarify himself in response to another Twitter user. He revealed this about Switch 2 and PlayStation production in China:
“Sure, but its less than 10% of (Switch 2) production, China is over 90% of PS5 production.”
If Gibson’s analysis and information is true, it really drives home how badly Sony can be harmed by US tariffs. We also reported on an analysis on this situation from a YouTuber who may also work in the financial industry.
Nintendo Minute argued that Sony has been raising prices for PlayStation 5 consoles for years now, to astronomical numbers, but only outside of America. They can no longer sell the PlayStation 5 as a loss leader because of inflation, but they can still manage to maintain prices in the US because Sony’s PlayStation division is headquartered in California.
But that’s one YouTuber’s analysis, as well argued as it is. David Gibson, who currently works for Australian finances firm MST financial, had a long tenure as analyst for Macquarie Securities in Japan, covering over 200 Japanese companies that included Sony, Nintendo, Softbank, Rakuten, and others.
If we take these analyses together, it’s hard not to see Sony eventually being forced to raise prices of PlayStation 5 in the US as well. We know that they revised the base PlayStation 5 model to be smaller, to lower manufacturing costs, but then had to raise the price of the PlayStation 5 Pro to $ 699.99.
They took all these actions before the current administration took over in the US and instituted these new tariffs. It’s on Sony for not moving faster to offload manufacturing of their console out of China as quickly as Nintendo did.
Or at least that’s what we’re led to believe by all of these claims and speculation. We think if Sony can help it, they will avert any potential price increases until the PlayStation 6 arrives. And, if it’s possible, they will work to move their manufacturing of the PlayStation 6 outside of China as quickly as possible.
But even these assumed facts can change in a matter of months, based on how US tariffs change, and how the rest of the world’s economies change in reaction to those tariffs and each other.
