How Much Did the PS4 Cost at Launch in 2013?
By the Price Time Machine team · Updated
The PS4 launch price was $399 when Sony’s PlayStation 4 went on sale in North America on November 15, 2013. Adjusted for inflation, that is about $576.82 in September 2026 money, roughly 1.4 times the original price.
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PlayStation 4 (PS4) at a glance
- US launch price
- $399
- In today’s money
- ≈ $576.82November 2013 to September 2026 (CPI-U, BLS)
- US release date
- November 15, 2013
- Where it was designed
- Tokyo, JapanDeveloped by Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo, Japan.
- Category
- Gaming & tech
- Price source
- sony.mediaroom.com
Today’s price is the US launch price adjusted for US inflation with the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, comparing the launch month with the latest published month. It updates automatically as new figures come out.
How $399 won the price war
Sony revealed the price on stage at the E3 games show on June 10, 2013, a few hours after Microsoft had confirmed the Xbox One would cost $499. The Xbox One had also been announced with limits on lending and reselling used games, and it needed to check in online.
Sony announced that the PS4 would have none of those limits, and cost $100 less. The audience cheered, and Sony followed it up with a 22-second video showing how to share PS4 games: one person simply hands a disc to another. A week later Microsoft dropped its used-game restrictions.
The PS4 launch price in today’s money
Inflation means a dollar buys less today than it did in 2013. Using the US Consumer Price Index, the PS4 launch price of $399 works out at about $576.82 in September 2026 money, around 1.4 times the original figure. That is what the same amount of spending power would cost now, not what a PS4 sells for second-hand.
When was the PS4 released?
- North America: November 15, 2013
- Europe and Latin America: November 29, 2013
- Japan: February 22, 2014, three months after America, even though Sony is a Japanese company
Where was the PS4 designed?
Sony Computer Entertainment designed it in Tokyo, Japan. Its lead system architect was Mark Cerny, an American game designer. After game makers struggled with the unusual Cell chip in the PlayStation 3, Cerny chose PC-style chips from AMD so that games would be easier to build.
PS4 facts you might not know
- Sony sold more than one million PS4 consoles in North America in its first 24 hours.
- The $399 box came with a 500 GB hard drive, one DualShock 4 controller and a mono headset. The controller added a Share button for posting clips and screenshots.
- A more powerful PS4 Pro followed in November 2016, also for $399.
- It became one of the best-selling home consoles ever, with more than 117 million sold.
Frequently asked questions
How much did the PS4 cost when it came out?
The PS4 cost $399 in the United States when it launched on November 15, 2013.
How much is $399 from 2013 worth today?
Adjusted for US inflation, the PS4’s $399 launch price is about $576.82 in September 2026 money.
Was the PS4 cheaper than the Xbox One?
Yes. The Xbox One launched a week later, on November 22, 2013, for $499, so the PS4 was $100 cheaper.
How fast did the PS4 sell?
Sony said it sold more than one million PS4 consoles in North America in the first 24 hours.
Want to compare the PS4 launch price with similar launches? See what the PlayStation 5, the PlayStation 2, the Xbox One and the Nintendo Switch cost, browse more famous launch prices, or play the PS4 question in Price Time Machine.
Sources
Launch prices and dates are checked against the sources below. Today’s price is calculated from official US inflation data and updates automatically when new figures are published.
- Press release: Sony, PlayStation 4 Launches November 15 in North America (August 20, 2013)
- Press release: Sony, PlayStation 4 Sales Surpass 1 Million Units in North America in 24 Hours (November 17, 2013)
- Wikipedia: PlayStation 4
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index (CPI-U)