Game consoles, like all technology, tend to drop in price as time goes on and Moore’s law makes the same level of performance cheaper to produce. So it’s a bit odd that the PlayStation 4, which launched just four months ago for $400 CAD, is officially being bumped up to an MSRP of $450 CAD as of today.
Certain PS4 accessories and software will also see a price hike in our neighbor to the north. The PS4 camera and DualShock 4 controller both go from $60 CAD to $65 CAD, while upcoming PS4 exclusives MLB14: The show And Unknown second son will retail for $70 CAD, instead of the standard $60 CAD for PS4 games to date. A Microsoft representative told the Financial mail that there were no plans to raise the CAD $500 asking price in the country.
Sony said in a statement that the price changes were made “to respond to changes in the market environment,” but didn’t elaborate on what exactly that meant. The adjustment could simply be an acknowledgment of the increasing weakness of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar in recent months. When the PS4 launched in North America on Nov. 15, its asking price of $400 in the US was equivalent to about $417 CAD, according to X-rates.com. Today, that same $400 is worth about CAD$444, which is much closer to the new Canadian price.
On the other hand, it is also possible that Sony is trying to better manage limited hardware supplies. According to trackers on NowInStock.net, PS4 hardware has been out of stock at many major Canadian retailers since late February. The console is also currently out of stock on sites like Best Buy Canada and Future Shop.
The Canadian PS4 supply situation is a bit more dire than the US, where the PS4 was somewhat hard to find in 2014, but was still sporadically available from many online retailers this year. Still, those supply issues don’t explain the Canadian price hike for the DualShock 4 controller or retail software, both of which have seen no supply restrictions on either side of the US-Canada border.
However, the same cannot be said of the PlayStation Camera, which has been almost impossible to find in North America for months now. According to NowInStock, Amazon sold out about an hour after the latest shipment of the cameras went to market. Availability of the cameras has become so dire that GameStop US raised the asking price for the camera from its $60 MSRP to $70 last week. Despite the increased price, the camera has been sold out on Gamestop’s website since yesterday, after being released last Thursday. came in stock.