Has the PS5 become a luxury item due to price hikes? The *Game Title* fans envy this “goddess-level girlfriend”

From the days when my Chinese Paladin CD was so worn it turned white all the way to now—from scraping together high-school pocket money to buy cartridges, to gritting my teeth and buying my first console once I started working—my feelings for a game console have never been just about cold hardware. It’s the treasured sword in my travel pack, a token for roaming the jianghu, and a witness to how countless domestic wuxia and xianxia games accompanied me through rough times. So whenever I see someone blessed because of a console, my heart always skips a beat: I’m happy for them, and I can’t help but think of those years when I was “short on money and consoles, but never short on dreams.”

Back to the protagonist this time: a netizen posted on social media showing off a brand new PS5, and it was a gift from his girlfriend. Along with the line, “Officially certified: my boyfriend is the happiest man in the world,” the whole scene feels a bit like an old-school wuxia hero emerging from seclusion—not to settle old grudges in a final duel, but to find a warm jug of wine and a lone lamp waiting for him. The jianghu is far away, yet there is someone behind him. And this just happened to coincide with Sony’s global announcement of a PS5 price increase, instantly boosting the value of this console from a trusty blade to a treasure almost worthy of being listed among heirloom weapons.

The comments section was full of cheers, with many people congratulating him on finding a “fairy-like girlfriend.” These four characters read like an evaluation from the jianghu, as if it were a title bestowed upon the kind of girl who’s willing to sit through an entire Chinese Paladin story with you, or stay up past midnight together waiting for the latest domestic title to unlock. In an era of sudden price hikes, scalped preorders, and resellers taking off, someone who’s willing to buy you a PS5 isn’t just willing to spend money; she’s acknowledging your hobby and understanding why you’d tear up over a domestic wuxia plotline in a virtual jianghu.

But if we calm down a bit, putting a console on the pedestal of a “touchstone for love” is actually a bit unfair. A newly marked-up PS5 is certainly expensive, but in the jianghu, what matters has always been the right feeling, not the right price. Staying up all night to clear a game together, waiting side by side for the next domestic wuxia release, cursing together over some botched ending—these memories sometimes weigh more than a piece of hardware. Conversely, if all that’s left is “I bought you a PS5, how are you going to return the favor,” that starts to feel like those reskinned, nostalgia-milking domestic games: no matter how fancy the packaging, there’s not much genuine feeling inside to hold it up.

Beyond sentiment, we still have to talk a bit rationally. Now that the PS5 has gone up in price, players on a tight budget can absolutely choose to save their money for where it really counts—like waiting for the domestic wuxia and xianxia titles you truly want to play to hit consoles. Rather than blindly following the “buy early, enjoy early” mantra, it’s better to think about what you actually want to witness on this machine: are you hoping to recapture the flavor of the old Chinese Paladin days, or are you waiting for a truly homegrown blockbuster to step onto the world stage? And if someone wants to give a gift to their partner, I’d actually suggest sitting down for a proper talk first: is it a console, a specific game you’ll play together, or a device that will carry the shared jianghu between you two? As long as you choose the right direction, even a cheaper piece of hardware can become your “token sword of love.”

To end, I’ll borrow the approach of the original post and toss the question to you: what’s the best game-related gift you’ve ever received? Was it a domestic RPG you couldn’t afford back in the day, an old console that stayed with you through a low point in life, or a wuxia world someone accompanied you through from start to finish, one that still warms your heart whenever you think of it now? Feel free to tell your story in the comments. Let’s rummage through our respective “jianghu backpacks” together and see just how much sentiment we’ve been carrying inside.