Third-party retailer's PlayStation 5 price placeholder gives gamers the jitters

MediaMarkt may have inadvertently shocked a few expectant PlayStation fans with something as innocuous as a price placeholder on a product page. The Swedish retailer has advertised a price of 9,999 Swedish krona for the upcoming PlayStation 5, which even with super-fast SSD storage and custom AMD Zen 2 CPU and GPU would still be an incredibly hefty price to pay for a game console.

It would not make much business sense for Sony to price the PS5 at around US$1,000. Such a high figure would immediately turn off a large portion of fans and potential buyers who are used to new PlayStation consoles being released at half that price. However, the MediaMarkt listing does make it clear that current information about the PS5 is temporary and could be changed prior to launch, including the price.

How much the PS5 will eventually cost is still open to broad speculation, with many media outlets plumping for a US$399-$499 price range for the next-gen console. Regardless of the high-end components and lofty expected specifications and performance of the PS5, a figure just under the US$500 mark seems reasonable, as Sony will want the next-gen console to throw up some great launch sales figures to shake up the Xbox competition and steady the fluttering hearts of its investors.