this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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[–] Bieren@lemmy.today 1 points 1 minute ago

It is memory prices? Or is it just the “we don’t have any real competition” increase?

[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 2 points 22 minutes ago

I guess I'll just have to buy even fewer consoles than I already am.

[–] wuffah@lemmy.world 2 points 50 minutes ago

They made a fifth one?

[–] SammyJK@programming.dev 66 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Back in my day console prices went down with time...

[–] sanpo@sopuli.xyz 10 points 2 hours ago

Back then we didn't have another bubble inflating prices every other year. :/

[–] popcar2@piefed.ca 27 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I know everyone expected prices to go up but $650 for a regular PS5? OOOFFFFF.

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

But it's a whole console for the same price as 64GB memory, what a deal!

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 23 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Great news for the steam machine. The price difference gets smaller as they raise closing the gap.

Thanks xbox for leaving the market to allow this.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago

Xbox hasn’t quite left the market, they’re just slowly sleepwalking down a pier. We’ll see if they wake up before they walk off the end and end up drowning. I’m certainly not holding my breath.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

Xbox had already begun raising prices for the same reason Sony's doing so now.

[–] CodenameDarlen@lemmy.world 12 points 3 hours ago (7 children)

Why do people buy a console instead of a PC? I just can't understand, seriously.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 1 points 17 minutes ago* (last edited 16 minutes ago)

because pc gaming is a huge pain in the ass.

console gaming is not.

some of us just want to play games. we don't care about 120 fps bragging rights or spending hours resolving driver issues. console is superior experience for that.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 12 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

There are fewer and fewer reasons as time goes on, but the big one is that it's usually a lower up-front cost (in a lot of cases, still is) and just works without any fuss. We might find the fuss on PC to be pretty minimal, but on console, it approaches 0. PCs have gotten easier to work with, people have become more literate in how to use them, and the long-term savings on PC with a significantly sized library have become more apparent, but there will always still be a market for something like a console, even if that means they abandon some of their defining traits in order to survive the future.

[–] Naho_Zako@piefed.zip 1 points 53 minutes ago

Yup. I wanted to play FF VII Rebirth, but apparently SE can't be assed to optimize their flagship game for PC, so I stuck with the PS5 version because it just works. I don't want to deal with stuttering and downloading weird drivers to get it to maybe not stutter. I don't care about mods and ultimate graphics. I just want to play the game.

[–] lemmyng@lemmy.world 10 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, when it comes to console exclusives, some can't be beat. Nintendo and Sony have proven that console exclusives still drive sales.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (2 children)

Mat Piscatella of Circana makes a good argument that they haven't proven that. A lot of Xbox titles became all-time PS5 best-sellers immediately after getting ported. People who wanted to play those games could have bought an Xbox at any point to play them before the multiplatform strategy was announced, but they didn't. He would argue that people have already settled into their platform of choice and just wait for the games they want to come there. Something like a third of all console players (at least Xbox/PS) are only playing multiplatform live service games on those consoles, not any of the marquis exclusives.

And to be honest, that makes sense. In the grand scheme of things, there aren't even that many exclusives anymore, compared to the deluge that there might have been in the 5th/6th gens.

[–] baronvonj@piefed.social 2 points 1 hour ago

People who wanted to play those games could have bought an Xbox at any point to play them before the multiplatform strategy was announced,

But then they would have had to use an Xbox. 😋

Something like a third of all console players (at least Xbox/PS) are only playing multiplatform live service games on those consoles, not any of the marquis exclusives.

PC totally makes sense for them, if they can afford the min. requirements.

[–] PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

This is a good point, but leaves Nintendo out of the consideration

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

And I don't have data for this, because I'm not an analyst, and Piscatella shares what he shares, so all I've got are anecdotal observations.

  • Some Nintendo properties have extremely strong moats, as Warren Buffet might call them. Pokemon, Mario, and Zelda especially. Even if a new property like Splatoon does well, it doesn't mean it's a system seller the way old exclusives used to be. The lower bound for this moat is clearly what the Wii U did in sales.
  • Switch 1 was very popular with children, as the machine is cheaper and more durable than handheld PC equivalents. It was very easy to end up with multiple Switch 1s per household. The industry outside of mobile and Nintendo has done, from what I can tell, a horrendous job of catering to children compared to how it used to.

Speaking for myself, even if I wasn't pissed off at how Nintendo operates as a company and decided not to be a customer of theirs anymore, they're still running into the same problems that caused me to lose interest in PlayStation. They can't put out enough exclusives to justify a $500 machine to play them, since I'm going to be playing everything else, at better settings, for the same or lower price, on PC.

[–] leoj@piefed.zip 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Also I feel like Nintendo is losing its stranglehold on really good games in their own niche of wimsical platformers that are accessible and fun, but still provide some challenge if you seek it out.

See Astrobot. Hoping for more games in this same vein because its a winner.

[–] PlasticExistence@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

I find it hard to argue with that as I also don’t have data one way or another.

I’ve personally decided that I’m not going to be purchasing any games on console that are available for PC. I was always a console gamer, from the (really dating myself here) Mattel Electronics IntelliVision to the PS5. But more and more they don’t feel worth it to me, and I’ve absolutely loved gaming on my Steam Deck.

Of course, Nintendo is almost certainly never going to bring their games to PC. I am a sucker for Zelda or Metroid, so I usually have a Nintendo console of some sort.

[–] FerretyFever0@fedia.io 7 points 2 hours ago

It's a bit cheaper than pcs with similar performance, I believe. Some people have enough for a console, but not a decent pc. I've never had to buy a pc, so I'm not certain, but I think I've heard that before.

[–] missingno@fedia.io 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Simple, I can't play Kirby Air Riders or Splatoon 3 on PC. And while I still prefer the form factor of Nintendo's old smaller dedicated handhelds, I think the Switch (2) is still at least a better at being a handheld than the much bulkier Steam Deck.

(Don't say emulation, because even then I still can't play online on official servers.)

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

The "bulk" of that Steam Deck compared to Switch 2 is what I'd call ergonomics. I was actually shocked that Nintendo didn't reevaluate their joycon design more, because the Switch sucks to hold for long periods of time, and alternate joycons are one of the most prominent third party peripherals.

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 1 points 2 hours ago

The cost of building a gaming PC has also gone up dramatically.

A whole ps5 is about the current price of just a decent "value" video card. Toss in your ram and storage and you're looking at three times the price.

[–] Fishnoodle@lemmy.world -1 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

Because I like sitting down after a long day and playing games on my big ass oled tv.

I don't like sitting down and turning on my computer so that it can update Windows, then the game itself needs to be updated. Then the game runs like shit because my graphics drivers updated to a newer version that doesn't work well with the game I'm playing. So then I have to do some research to find the best driver version to downgrade to. So then I finally get the driver issue fixed and start the game, but now my controller isn't working because the windows update broke the Logitech drivers my controller needs. So now it's been two hours, I'm tired, I didn't get to play any games, and I still have more work to do tomorrow to get things working.

[–] Hond@piefed.social 2 points 1 hour ago

This comment. But now imagine not beeing computer literate. While consoles lost a bit of their appeal in ease of use the last two generation they're still a nice little walled garden where most of the stuff is just working for you in the background.

I havent bought a current-gen console since the 360 for various reasons. But i get why somebody just wants a playstation and not a gaming pc.

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Feels like linux can fix some of your problem, but then it creates some other. So, fair.

And it feels like the upcoming Steam Machine fit right into your case.

[–] commander@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

PS6 is going to be so boutique when that comes out. PS5's cross gen period with the PS6 is going to be even longer than the PS4s with the PS5

[–] Scotty_Trees@lemmy.world -1 points 49 minutes ago

if y'all are still buying consoles, you're a big chud. stop giving billion dollar companies your pennies. emulators are free and everywhere! fuck off nintendo too!!

[–] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Question; is it nowadays cheaper to just get a good gaming PC for long-term? (Including when someone does piracy related stuff).

Nowadays, I can’t recommend any console except the Steam Deck (OLED). I do always say “just get a good Gaming PC and for handheld the Steam Deck”.

[–] lath@piefed.social 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Don't go all in with Steam. The people in charge right now are kinda old and the vultures are already circling.

[–] eli@lemmy.world 2 points 34 minutes ago

All companies everywhere have old people. So don't buy into any company!

Stupid comment

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago

Even without getting into piracy territory, yes. You need a subscription for online play on console, and there's a lot of competition among PC stores to keep prices low during sales, including bundles of games. So for perhaps most use cases these days that involve some amount of online play and playing a certain number of games per year, PC ends up cheaper.

[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago