LOL Consoles are too expensive, and this is the find out stage of their fuck around journey. Its not all that surprising, especially with the ending of physical games on Sony's part and Microsoft being generally shitty... They might not recover for a while. Bully for them!

I'm amazed they've not crashed more. The PS5 and Xbox whatever the fuck they called it are both 6 years old, if you haven't already decided to buy one why would you get one now after the price hike?

Gaming in general is way too expensive now.

At least we have retro games to play instead.

Not just here but everywhere. Everyone (except those with too much) is holding tight to their wallet until trump dies and some stability comes back to the world.

It's the same theme everywhere. They build for some kind of non existent luxury market while buyers stretch themselves thin. Now no one has any money left and credit cards are maxed.

We're not buying what's being sold. So now what?

Raising Prices and making them the EXACT same as Computers but Worse didn't bring in MORE Sales? Quick! MAYBE if we Raise the Prices MORE it'll Reverse course!

-EVERY High Paid CEO ever!

Clearly this is because people are just tired of buying physical goods. They want digital consoles!

Hardware costs have gone up, compelling games releases for them have gone down (and didn't start from a good position).

Such a mystery.

I won't purchase another system because I don't want to deal with 1) constant downloads- new games, game updates, system updates, data collection 2) logging in all the time 3) not owning a physical copy of a game.

They complicated the fuck out of doing basic things on their systems and I want no part of it. What have they done to keep the consumer interested in their systems?

OMG! It's almost like constantly raising prices just isn't working out!

It doesn't matter how expensive RAM gets, what the market is doing, how much AI is driving up component prices, or whether the market is bullish or bearish. At some point, consumers reach a breaking point. When a product becomes too expensive, people stop buying it. They don't particularly care why it's expensive. They care whether it's worth the asking price, and whether they can justify spending that much money on it.

And that's the problem Sony and Microsoft seem to be running into. Between rising console prices, increasingly expensive games, subscription price hikes, and a growing number of anti-consumer practices, they've made gaming an increasingly expensive hobby while giving consumers fewer reasons to feel good about spending their money.

What's worse is that these companies have spent years alienating a significant portion of their own fan bases. Aggressive monetization, digital ownership concerns, restrictive ecosystems, and the push toward subscriptions have steadily eroded consumer goodwill. You can only squeeze your customers so much before they start questioning whether they want to remain customers at all.

At the end of the day, consumers aren't obligated to buy a PlayStation or an Xbox just because they bought one last generation. They can stick with their existing hardware, buy fewer games, switch platforms, or walk away from gaming altogether.

You can't price your way to endless growth, especially when you're simultaneously giving your customers more reasons not to buy your products. Eventually, the market pushes back. And frankly, it's hardly surprising that we're seeing that happen now.

Can't play games when hungry.

I literally own two ps4s and two copies of a game my SO and I wanted to play together, but neither of us have an active PS+. We would both have to resub just to play it together in the same room. It ended up being cheaper just to buy two copies again on Steam to play it together on PC/laptop. There's no reason to own a console anymore. Their convenience is completely gone.

I've just bought my first console in nearly 10 years but it wasn't any of the big three. My partner and I are loving our new Steam Machine.

Doesn't mention how Switches and Steam Decks are doing, but I would venture to guess that Valve is eating Sony and Microsoft's lunch.

Curious to see Nintendo's numbers in comparison.

And yeah, those prices are insane. At a certain point, just pay for a PC and have access to whatever you want. Plus, you don't have to pay an additional fee for online features. It doesn't have to be the best gaming rig ever, especially for most people. And recoup the money spent on a gaming rig by escaping the closed eco system. Wait for good sales on PC games or turn to the high seas.

And honestly, outside of Nintendo, I haven't seen a console exclusive game on Xbox or PS5 that I've wanted to play in years.

Those prices though. People can still game without consoles, and with the way they're destroying the economy, it seems people are realizing they can ditch the consoles for other options.

Turns out, fucking over your customers is bad for buisness. Who could have guessed?

Og Xbox rocked. Because sega engineers made it.

Congratulations to PCs for winning the console wars :3

If I bought one it would end up in the pile of gaming devices I don't use. I have an RG35XXSP for GBA, GB,and GC, a Retroid Mini for PSP, Vita, NES, SNES, PSX, DC, and arcade, a Retroid Pocket Nova for PS2, GC, and N64, an AYN Odin 2 portal for Android games, PC games/streaming, a 5800X3D/7900XTX PC for 4K OLED gaming, and a 5700X3D/9070XT for 1440P widescreen gaming. I'm nearing 660 games on my steam/epic/gog libraries and I have 2TB of rom dumps for all of the retro systems. I've spent thousands of dollars to realize I don't like gaming, I liked hanging out with my friends.

Another industry with its bottom falling out.

Oh no! Major corporations are not making billions?!

How can we help!

/s

As a PC gamer concerned about game preservation: good. Consoles are just walled hardware fiefdoms.

Do they know most of their customers have budget and they can't just spend entirety of it for gaming stuff?

There are also their potential customers that will gated by those huge cost for entry-level gaming setup.

Also for those who don't even have budget, why the hell they gonna participate on those out of reach game ecosystem?

How long until someone digs up a bunch of Halo Infinite discs from a New Mexico desert?