GameStop is now listing refurbished PS5 Pro consoles for $1,399.99. That is roughly $500 more than the current $899.99 price of a brand-new PS5 Pro. It may sound odd, but according to an employee memo leaked on Reddit, that pricing is completely intentional.
The used PS5 Pro is somehow the expensive one
A GameStop employee shared a memo telling staff that the higher price on pre-owned PS5 Pros is deliberate. A moderator of the r/GameStop subreddit said the employee had been vetted and confirmed the post was legitimate. The new prices are also showing up on GameStop’s website.
The $1,399.99 refurbished price can feel especially shocking because the PS5 Pro originally launched at $699.99. Sony has since raised its MSRP to $899.99 amid the ongoing memory-chip shortage, but GameStop’s used price still sits about $500 above what Sony currently charges for a new one.
PS5 Pros are getting weirdly hard to find
Sony, GameStop, and Target are currently out of stock of new PS5 Pros at around the $899.99 MSRP. Other retailers have them, but the prices are not exactly comforting. Best Buy is listing one for around $1,496, while Walmart has one around $1,555.
Even the resale market is not offering much relief. Sealed PS5 Pros on eBay and Facebook Marketplace are reportedly going for around $1,300 or more.
Blame the AI boom?
The shortage is definitely not happening in a vacuum. AI data centers are consuming enormous amounts of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and chip manufacturers have a pretty obvious incentive to prioritize customers willing to pay premium prices.
That has squeezed the supply of memory available for consumer electronics, contributing to a massive increase in RAM prices. The effects are already spreading beyond PCs into smartphones and even cars. The PS5 Pro is not necessarily being singled out because Sony suddenly decided gamers needed to suffer. It’s part of a much bigger hardware supply problem.
GTA VI is about to make everything worse
GTA VI, Rockstar’s long-awaited blockbuster, is scheduled to arrive in November, and gamers who have spent years waiting for the next Grand Theft Auto are not exactly eager to play it on whatever hardware happens to be lying around.
The PS5 Pro does not even promise 60fps for GTA VI at launch, but that hasn’t stopped some players from wanting the most powerful PlayStation available anyway. And that’s probably helping create the perfect storm. Limited PS5 Pro supply plus massive demand plus GTA VI hype means retailers can charge absolutely unhinged prices.
A regular PS5 might be an option
For anyone who simply wants a PlayStation rather than specifically needing the Pro, the regular PS5 Slim models are looking considerably more sensible. The Digital and Disc versions are still selling around their normal pricing, so you don’t necessarily have to join the PS5 Pro bidding war.
If the goal is simply to play GTA VI when it launches, there is also the Xbox Series X, which costs less than the PS5 Pro at MSRP while offering more performance than the base PS5. And if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, there is the open-source AnyPS5 project, which aims to run PS5 games natively on PC.
Sources: Tom’s Hardware, COMPLEX