Over the course of video game history, more often than not the most expensive time to buy a system is when it first comes out. Early adopters pay a premium. After a year or so on the market, you start to see reasonable discounts at least during sales. Three or four years into a console’s lifecycle, it’s common now to see a refresh. Maybe PlayStation Slim or Pro, or and Xbox One X or a Nintendo Switch OLED. Prices on the launch models come down more while the brand new model releases at the original, higher price.

The current global economy has run havok with tech pricing norms. Now, it’s much harder to say whether a video game console will be more expensive at launch or not. The PlayStation 5 released in November of 2020 – nearly five years ago! – and now, almost half a decade into