Demand for PlayStation and Xbox in Russia has grown over the year

MOSCOW, 19 Sep — PRIME. Demand for PlayStation and Xbox consoles grew in Russia by almost 50% over the year, it could be higher, but a number of factors “slow down growth,” RIA Novosti was told in the Holodilnik.ru online store.

“Demand for set-top boxes is growing steadily. If we take August-September 2022 to the same period in 2021, then growth is approaching 50%. Potentially, growth could be much higher, but there are several factors that stop it,” said the commercial director company Aleksey Pogudalov.

So, according to him, the first factor is the price of these consoles. It is noted that in federal retail it ranges from 66 to 80 thousand rubles, depending on the modification, while the recommended price from Sony in 2021 was 36,990 and 45,990 for the version without a disk and with a disk, respectively.

The second factor is market saturation. “A large number of consoles were brought to Russia under the parallel import scheme. At the same time, there is a tendency to sell goods imported under the” gray schemes “, and it is quite difficult for classic retailers to compete with such sellers,” Pogudalov added.

At the same time, the third factor is the “non-classical” connection, since registration now should not be on a Russian account, and payment for content should be made from cards of other countries. In this regard, customers are afraid that the purchased console will not work.

In early March, Microsoft suspended sales of products and services in Russia, including Xbox consoles, games, subscriptions and software for them. Sony in the light of events in Ukraine also suspended its activities in Russia. The restrictions affected the import of PlayStation consoles and the operation of the PlayStation Store.

At the same time, at the end of the month, the Russian government legalized parallel imports to meet demand for foreign goods in demand. One of the principles by which goods are included in the list is the termination of supplies to the market.