By Nelson Schneider - 04/19/26 at 03:53 PM CT
It seems that we are just flat-out not allowed to have nice things, peace, or happiness anymore. Just when it seemed that Industrial Gaming had already plumbed the deepest depths of enshittification, something new is on the horizon, and it seems that Sony is leading the way into even greater hostility toward its customers.
As reported by Bellular News, it seems that Sony is going to be the first major gaming company and platform-holder to start adjusting prices based on what each individual can be expected to pay, rather than offering products at fixed prices with occasional blanket discounts. It’s entirely possible that we’re witnessing the beginning of the end for MSRP - Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price – as, if Sony and other like-minded corporations get their way, all product pricing will change from “MSRP” to “How Much You Got?”
Unfortunately, HMYG dynamic pricing isn’t actually a “new” thing. It has existed for decades under the guise of Regional Pricing, where products and services are sold for significantly more in first-world nations with economies based on the U.S. Dollar or Euro, while the same exact products are sold for a pittance in second-world or third-world nations like Russia and the variety of sub-Saharan African shitholes with single-digit average annual incomes. This has always been an unfair proposition, especially when dealing with digital products that have arbitrary restrictions stating that a user living in the first-world can’t buy a product key from the third-world for third-world pricing and actually use it in their first-world home.
However, HMYG dynamic pricing is only going to make things much, much worse. In the last couple of decades, the first-world has seen the greatest levels of wealth stratification since the days of the Roman Empire, due to the one-two punch of importing millions of immigrants from the second-world and third-world, and corporate lobbying preventing government intervention even when desperately needed. Corporations have always been forced to strike a balance between affordability and profit based on average incomes... but now they won’t be forced to compromise at all, but will instead attempt to squeeze the maximum profit out of every sale.
What can we be expected to do about dynamic pricing infesting every facet of the economy through the expansion of AI data collection and number crunching? It’s hard to say, considering how new the technology is, but as far as I’m concerned, we – as in all of us, collectively – need to double-down on frugality and refusing to pay for things that aren’t worth it. Cancel those streaming subscriptions that seem to hike their prices every year. Only buy games when they’re deeply discounted. Built a profile for the AIs that portrays you as the biggest cheapskate in the world, regardless of whether you can afford to absorb the additional costs. Hopefully, if the system works like it sounds like it’s supposed to work, the system will see that YOU don’t buy things when the prices are jacked up to the ceiling and are willing to cancel subscriptions and wait for sales, which SHOULD result in the system giving YOU better deals. Of course, it’s entirely possible that the system WON’T work that way, but will dig into publicly available income information and staunchly only offer YOU products at prices that it knows that YOU can afford, and will stare you down with the cold lack of empathy only a machine can wield until YOU break.
Stand strong. Refuse to break.
