Sony’s decision to increase the price of the PS5 and PS5 Pro doesn’t appear to be paying off, at least if recent sales are anything to go by. Beginning April 2, the price of the regular PS5 increased to £569.99, the Digital Edition rose to £519.99, and the PS5 Pro climbed to £789.99. Even the PlayStation Portal received a price increase, rising from £199.99 to £219.99. Price increases were also announced for other major markets, including Europe, the US and Japan. Indeed, the latest sales figures to come out of Japan suggest that fans are looking elsewhere for a gaming fix.

According to Famitsu, Sony only sold 840 units of the PS5 Pro and 558 regular PS5 consoles with built-in hard drive in the week ending April 5.

The cheaper PS5 Digital Edition fared much better, racking up sales north of 12,000 in the same period. This suggests that while there’s still an appetite for the PlayStation 5, customers aren’t prepared to pay the higher prices.

Things are looking much rosier for the Nintendo Switch 2, which had a much better showing during the same week.

While the PS5 sold a combined 13,539 during the week ending April 5, the Nintendo Switch 2 sold a whopping 59,543.

It will be interesting to see if Nintendo can maintain the momentum as the weeks go by, but as it stands, Sony may be regretting such a severe price increase.

The PS5 Pro aims to improve on the original PS5 in three main ways. Specifically with a bigger GPU, Advanced Ray-Tracing and AI-driven upscaling.

The GPU will provide rendering that’s up to 45% faster thanks to 67% more Compute Units and 28% faster memory. This should lead to a better balance between visuals and performance.

Advanced Ray Tracing will provide “more dynamic reflection and refraction of light”, which allows rays to be cast at double and sometimes even triple the speeds of the current PS5.

Then there’s the AI Driven Upscaling, which is said to use “machine learning-based technology to provide super sharp image clarity by adding an extraordinary amount of detail”.