South African gamers can’t afford to wait for a drop in hardware prices

The Rand took another hit recently following the announcement that Pravin Gordhan would face fraud charges.

While the effects of the jump will only be seen months from now, South African retailers are already preparing for the hit.

We spoke to Raru’s Neil Smith about the effect the jump will have on game and hardware pricing and whether South Africans should buy now:

“If we knew how the Rand would fare over the next couple of months, we would be very happy as well.”

“Unfortunately it is always a guessing game whether prices will rise or fall over the coming months.”

In other words, South African retailers are in more or less the same limbo regarding the exchange rate as the average South African consumer.

“The best we can hope for that the currency stabilises for the foreseeable future, which would enable the suppliers to have better forward cover in case of Rand instability.”

So does that mean we should bite the bullet and buy our games and hardware now or should we wait for prices to drop?

“As a gamer looking to spend money on hardware, I would think the best time is to do so now.”

“The chances of prices coming down any time soon seems to be on the very slim side indeed.”

Now read: What Gordhan’s fraud charges could do to South African tech and gaming prices