Sony has been playing wait-and-see with Microsoft’s Xbox when it comes to its upcoming PlayStation 5 console. This comes not only from rumours as the company has not released any interesting info about the machine. Let’s not even get to what Sony was trying to do at CES last month with the “logo reveal”.

But recent reports from sites like Bloomberg have claimed that the entertainment company is having a hard time trying to decide the best retail, price for PlayStation 5. According to unnamed sources, the company is thinking of pricing up on the production line, which they may soon choose to reveal to the public. This is funny though since we know nothing about the console. The sources went ahead to reveal that the potential price might be $450 (about Kes.45,300).

But what does this mean particularly for the Kenyan market?

When PlayStation 4 launched seven years ago, it came in at a starting pricing of $399, which is about 40k. Well, after the necessary taxing and of course retailers wanting profit, you wouldn’t get a PS4 console in Nairobi for less than Kes.50,000.

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So, with such an estimated price for the PlayStation 5, one wouldn’t help but get worried that the price will be much higher in Kenya and Africa in general. In fact, it is almost certain that that will be the case. If we assumed that the tax rates don’t get higher this time and that retailers don’t get greedy, we might be standing against a starting price of 65-70k. High chances, however, are that those two factors might be even worse this time.

As mentioned earlier, the main reason for all the secrecy has been Sony waiting on its rival to reveal everything so they can evaluate all factors. The PS4 undercut the Kinect-required Xbox One in 2013 by a whopping $100. This was was one of several factors that helped PS4 jump out to a big lead in the current console generation.

To stand as the devil’s advocate though, the tech in these new consoles is of high level. So, of course, the production cost for these consoles is much higher than the current ones. So, whether they reveal the costs now or later, just don’t expect the PS5 to be any cheap.