Speed running the death of console gaming?

[DarkPrince]

It seems console manufacturers are in a race to see who can kill console gaming faster, Sony with their decision to stop physical game sales from 2028 and Microsoft with yet another price increase in their hardware.

As of 1st August 2026, Microsoft has increased the cost of all Xbox models globally, in the UK the pricing is changing:

512GB Xbox Series S was £299.99 now £429.99
1TB Xbox Series S was £349.99 now £519.99
1TB Xbox Series X Digital was £449.99 now £619.99
1TB Xbox Series X Disc was £499.99 now £669.99

So basically a 35-45% increase depending on the model for 6 year old hardware with no revisions. I'm pretty sure I bought my Series S for just under £200 when Elden Ring came out 4 years ago, it was so cheap that's why I basically got it to play one game while I waited for the PS5 to drop in price. I bought my Son a Series X disc model for £399 which came with an extra controller a couple months back as well. The console gaming market is in such a terrible state at the moment and they just seem to be making the worst decisions possible to speed run it;s death, for example they also raised the price in Japan of all places, they already only sell like 2 units a month, what are these people thinking increasing the price there? Xbox Series X 1TB Disk Model went from 87,980 yen to 117,980 yen and the Xbox Series S went from 67,480 yen to 97,480 yen. For comparison the Switch 2 is 59,980 yen and the PS5 is 55,000 yen, make it make sense?

Sony also increased their console prices in April and Nintendo has a planed $50/€30 increase for the Switch 2 in September, the future is not looking good for console gamers.

With the push towards a Sony digital gaming monopoly and $1000+ console prices it's all looking very bleak at the moment.

 

[OM3G4_247]

I fully agree.
The last new console I bought was an original Switch.
Then in 2018, I got my first proper gaming PC, nothing too special, just a 1060 with a Ryzen CPU.
(Kind of had to get it, because I was doing support for a game that needed a decent gaming PC and familiarizing myself with the product was a hard requirement. Also didn't have a PC at the time and would need that to do the actual support work.)

Honestly, I haven't looked back since.
I've always been a console gamer, ever since the Sega Genesis.
But the main selling point was always the convenience and knowing games would run without any real issues.

If you owned a console, you never had to worry if it would be able to run the game (at least if it's from the same region as your console, if your console was region-locked).
You just bought the game, inserted it into the console, powered on the console and you'd be gaming.
No install, to hardware requirement checks, just plug and play.

Later on, after the PS3/XB360 online started to bring some improvements with online.
Games could be updated, which was good initially, since if a game had a bug, it wouldn't have to stay in that buggy state.

But then it started to go south ...
Horse armor and games being intentionally shipped in a broken state on launch, mandatory game installations, just to name a few.
Game stutter and performance issues also suddenly became more common. It wasn't always guaranteed a game would "run well" on a console, depending on where it was ported from or which of the consoles it was first developed for.

PS4 and XB1 launch saw Sony also adopting a paid subscription model to play multiplayer.
Some online-only games like Destiny started to become common.
And updates became more frequent for games, with most games having a "day 1 patch".

Now PS5 and XB Series S/X have diskless versions, DLC, large frequent patches, and Online only "Live Service" models.

Where has the convenience gone?
I don't honestly care if the hardware is cheaper anymore because the higher price of the games and the requirement to pay a monthly subscription will offset that over time.
I personally don't see any reason to own a console anymore, and I don't say that with "glee", I'm genuinely disappointed and want a console to blow me away again the same way the PS3 and Xbox 360 did.
But if I'm going to go digital only, it would make more sense to pivot towards a digital gaming platform like Steam that has much better customer support and is way more consumer friendly, or even better GOG where you actually can own your digital games and even pass them on to your children one day as part of their inheritance.

While they still have exclusives on 2 of the consoles that I can't play, frankly there aren't enough good exclusives to justify the cost of the hardware.
PS5 only has 2 exclusives I actually like, and that won't be enough for me to buy a console. Same for the Switch 2.
There's just nothing exciting about owning a console anymore and the convenience is gone.
Up to and including the PS3 release, the improvements were massive, it was genuinely exciting! (Anyone who knew me then will tell you I was a HUGE fanboy. It was amazing and the possibilities were genuinely exciting)
For modern consoles, it's about as exciting as a wet fart. There's nothing we haven't seen before and the companies are offering less and less for higher prices.

It almost feels like "having fun" is not allowed anymore, I don't know how else to put it.
These companies need a reality check.

 

[Nyt Ryda]

Didn't the PS4/XB1 cost R6.3k back in the day? Switch R5.5k.
Market's been messed up for a while. Current Series S is R9.3k, Switch 2 R11.5k and PS5 is R14.5k.

This is a high end hobby now, don't think most parents in SA can afford the current tech let alone when the PS6/nextbox come in over R20k easily.

Different story overseas though. Don't think the Americans will cry about a $999 console, their OLED TVs are double that and get upgraded every couple years.

 

[OM3G4_247]

Didn't the PS4/XB1 cost R6.3k back in the day? Switch R5.5k.
Market's been messed up for a while. Current Series S is R9.3k, Switch 2 R11.5k and PS5 is R14.5k.

This is a high end hobby now, don't think most parents in SA can afford the current tech let alone when the PS6/nextbox come in over R20k easily.

Different story overseas though. Don't think the Americans will cry about a $999 console, their OLED TVs are double that and get upgraded every couple years.

From the people I know, I can confirm it depends on the earning bracket.
(Captain obvious I am)

Even back in the the day when the PS4 launched and I was still in ZA, I was earning around R4K a month.
But it was the more affordable option for me with a better game variety and good exclusives.
BT Games still had great sales occasionally, or at least 2nd hand games were available everywhere at a price I could afford and the PSN store sometimes had some cheap indie titles that I wanted to try.

The removal of physical media greatly affects this affordability factor for someone who's still in similar earnings bracket in any country.
(Not to mention prevent sales entirely in countries where the PSN isn't available yet, but where people could still at least buy the consoles and physical games)
Past consoles were also sold at a loss, which Sony has confirmed will no longer be the case, but this too was a factor that improved affordability at the time.

Consoles were also called "expensive" in the past, like the SNK Neo Geo AES.
It's a "rare console" now because it hardly sold, due to it being priced at $649 in 1990. (Around $1,500 by today's standards)
But even that was simpler to budget for, you buy the console, buy the games and that's that.
Same for the Philips CD-i that was even more expensive.

By comparison, at the same time, the Sega Genesis launched at $189 (roughly $490 today) or the SNES launched at $199 (roughly $470 today).
That was back when gaming was even more of a niche interest / hobby, but it was still a success even though it was kind of expensive.

The uncomfortable truth is that gaming has always been a high end hobby, prices have so far pretty much just kept up with global inflation, the problem is, it reaches a threshold where it stops making sense.
This is also the first time in 50 years that a mid-generation base console price increase has ever happened!

There is a ton of past data where consoles flopped because it was simply too expensive, didn't have enough good games and so on, the Neo Geo is just one example.
The PS5 Digital Edition is already close to the upper threshold of what people would typically expect to pay considering inflation and so on.
Modern consoles now also have a "hidden cost" if you want to use all their modern features.

If you buy a PS5 digital edition in America it's no longer just a simple $599.99, instead you now also need to pay $79.99 annually if you plan on using multiplayer features.
So now, over 4 years it will cost you over $900 just to own a console and use all it's features over 4 years, and that's excluding buying games for it.
At some point it stops making sense.

Meanwhile you could buy a PC with similar specs to a PS5 for between $750 and $950 even with today's prices, and you can even score something for as low as $570 if you buy used.
But then you have the added benefit of having more options available in terms of what it can do and what you can do with it.
I'm using the PS5 as an example, but same would apply for the other consoles.

A lot of people buying these console are not parent's buying it for their kids, but adults that have bills to pay.
But even for the parents who do buy it for their kids, at some point you have to draw a line when things get too expensive.
(At least if you get little Timmy a PC, he'll have something he can do homework on and play Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft on)
We already have past console data that proves there is a point where enough people won't buy a console anymore, some people will still buy it and be able to afford it, but not enough to consider it a success.
Modern consoles are just inching closer and closer to that threshold now.

 

[Tech Guy SA]

i so miss read your title..


i blame investors btw.. same types of ppl that think pushing a price tag up with decreasing the quality of goods was a good idea ...low sales report = lets fire the very ppl that make the business work.

i would like to know how they get these jobs in the first place.

 

[OM3G4_247]

i so miss read your title..


i blame investors btw.. same types of ppl that think pushing a price tag up with decreasing the quality of goods was a good idea ...low sales report = lets fire the very ppl that make the business work.

i would like to know how they get these jobs in the first place.

Some of them, probably DEI or consultancy agencies like Sweetbaby IMO.
The industry seems to the filled with a startling number of people who don't like it or have an agenda.
And in other cases it's just good old cronyism or nepotism.

Either way, they got there, have no business being there, don't care about the product or it's fans and are ultimately ruining it.