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Study Breaks Down The Cheapest, Most Expensive Places To Buy Game Consoles
If you think you're getting the best deal on a new console, think again. If you think the prices of consoles have gotten too high, you may also want to think again – unless you live in Venezuela.
Linio, one of the largest retailers in Latin America, has complied the findings of a study it conducted in 2016 comparing the various prices of phones, appliances, and gaming consoles around the world. It then adjusted those prices to American dollars and Euros.
The study analyzed the prices of two gaming consoles (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) across "at least the ten largest retailers in the country’s five largest cities." The price list offers some interesting details about what the tech markets for various places around the world are like. According to the study, the five places that offer the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for the cheapest relative price are:
| PlayStation 4 | Xbox One |
| 1. Hungary ($246.89) | Switzerland ($222.55) |
| 2. Ukraine ($254.18) | Romania ($223.46) |
| 3. Canada ($274.25) | France ($227.90) |
| 4. Poland ($281.59) | Canada ($233.14) |
| 5. Italy ($281.96) | Qatar ($249.72) |
And the most expensive:
| PlayStation 4 | Xbox One |
| 1. Venezuela ($56,723.53) | Venezuela ($37,073) |
| 2. Angola ($868.75) | Brunei ($737.90) |
| 3. Thailand ($716.70) | Vietnam ($680.90) |
| 4. Argentina ($566.52) | Costa Rica ($640.96) |
| 5. Brazil ($565.20) | Thailand ($605.42) |
Western Europe seems to be the best place to buy a console, with Canada also cracking the top five for both PS4 and Xbox One. By comparison, the U.S. ranks 13th on the PS4 rankings, and 31st on the Xbox One list. This could be due to the relative strength of the Euro at the time the study was conducted. In recent months, the Euro has gotten weaker.
Meanwhile, the most expensive places to buy consoles tend to be in the South and Latin America, Southeast Asia, and South Africa, where import tariffs and other factors tend to the raise the price of consoles. Of particular note are the chart-topping prices of Venezuelan consoles, which have skyrocketed due the country's ongoing fight against massive inflation. This isn't limited to electronics, either; the cost of basic foods like milk has also gone up astronomically. The country has raised its minimum wage five times in the last year to combat the issue.
[Source: Linio]
Our Take
Though this doesn't mean you should go to Hungary and Switzerland for all your console-buying needs (the shipping costs and/or international trip costs will probably eat into the price difference), it does offer an interesting microcosm of how goods and services are priced around the world, and how political and economic issues around the world can affect those prices.
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