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Christopher Dring "console market continues to have a horrible year. Sales of games machines are down 30% in the UK this year"

nial

Gold Member
Not gonna happen with modern Sony. I want a new Infamous or Sly Raccoon or something creative like Puppeteer or Tearaway. Hell I'll settle for a new Uncharted. But knowing Sony it's gonna be more The Last of Us, Horizon and God of War, and even though I enjoy those franchises I'm kinda tired of them. Especially TLOU and the dark and moody atmosphere and serious tone. Motorstorm coming back would be awesome. Apocalypse was pretty cool. A new one with modern tech would be 👌
All of this when I will see you all in a thread for the announcement trailer of the new Astro Bot game.
 

Hero of Spielberg

Gold Member
Not all that surprising given inflation and cost of living pressures around the world.

Despite any context, Sony management and shareholders would not be thrilled by a 30% drop, they tend to have short memories when it comes to things like higher than expected sales in previous years.

Given comments (and actions) we’ve seen from Sony and Xbox this year I think they see rough seas ahead for the same (economic) and different (strategic) reasons. I reckon Jim saw the writing on the wall late last year and got out at a good time!
 
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Woopah

Member
Having had a glance on his twitter, I'm actually starting to believe this is his methodology of playing the algorithm and farming engagement.
I think he just looked at the numbers, and the two things that jumped out at him were the hardware decline and Fallout numbers. So that's what he write about.

Either way, it would be better if we just got to see the numbers themselves (like Famitsu).
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
We know series is down vs xbox one...which I don't know how that is possible.

But, how is ps5 doing? As long as it's ahead of ps4 everything's good.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
All of this when I will see you all in a thread for the announcement trailer of the new Astro Bot game.

A full fledged Astro Bot would be amazing. Astro's Playroom was very fun. If they can pull of a full length feature my faith is restored in the Sony I grew up and loved.
 
Isn't this lacking context though? Sales were up last year due to shortages easing - expecting that to continue is unrealistic.

Yes I understand the demand for infinite growth, yes it is stupid. That said, I do think the console market is going to wither and die unless something changes. Archaic thinking will make that inevitable.
Console market will never die.Especially PlayStation will always sell around 100-150 million in 6 years.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
It's going to be interesting to see where this gen lands on overall numbers in a couple of years.

If ps5 ends up behind ps4 I think alarm bells will be ringing and it will take a miracle for ps6 to turn it around. It will basically be the indicator of the start of the end for high end consoles.
 
I bet PS5 is still ahead of PS4 (time aligned ofc)

Edit: maybe not, seems like price is too high. Still, I would say even roughly repeating PS4's success is fine considering economics and much higher price and lack of games. It's only 1 manufacturer that is truly fucked (hint: not Sony/Nintendo).


If this is true, then Microsoft was smart to get out, if the industry leader is shrinking sales gen to gen, then even if they caught Sony it would still be losing battle, might as well cut your losses.
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
It's going to be interesting to see where this gen lands on overall numbers in a couple of years.

If ps5 ends up behind ps4 I think alarm bells will be ringing and it will take a miracle for ps6 to turn it around. It will basically be the indicator of the start of the end for high end consoles.

Ps5 will end up behind Ps4 because Sony are greedy fuckers, and won't lower the cost of the Ps5, which at this point in its lifecycle, they should be doing.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
it will probably happen simply because they can’t cost reduce the ps5 like the ps4 was

It’s not the end of the console market. It will still easily outsell ps3

Ps5 will end up behind Ps4 because Sony are greedy fuckers, and won't lower the cost of the Ps5, which at this point in its lifecycle, they should be doing.

Maybe it gets a price cut this year with the release of the pro.

Components aren't cheap, it's not like it's overly expensive for what you get.

Everything has gone up in price thanks to inflation. I think for context we need to see if items such as mobile phones have decreased etc.

I don't think you can just blame it on price, isn't it like 150 pounds more than a ps4 and if ypu get the digital it's only like 50 to 80 pounds more? I seem to think the ps4 was 300 pounds but I could be wrong?
 

Majukun

Member
Prices are still outrageous considering how far we are into the gen

Whoever was willing to pay that much for a console already has one at this point.
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Prices are still outrageous considering how far we are into the gen

Whoever was willing to pay that much for a console already has one at this point.

But people were paying like a grand in covid.

I honestly think that if your console has the games that are really blowing the socks off people then they will buy the console.

The reality is these kids don't want a ps5 or xbox.

I can only speak for pc gaming as that's the business I'm in but looking at data across retail and pc builds are up between 20 and 30 percent vs year on year. And thise aren't 500 pound gaming pcs they are more asp range of 1200 pounds. The most volume is in the 999 rtx 4060 boxes.

This pricing narrative just doesn't work when you look at the data.
 

Spyxos

Member
No wonder, everyone who wanted a console after Covid now has one. And the fact that the Ps5 is even more expensive than at release doesn't help at all. The price must come down significantly.
 

Mr.Phoenix

Member

I think that Christopher guy isn't the smartest guy out there.

The fact is, PS5 was up ridiculously high last year because supply was finally meeting demand. Its also a fact that being down 30% from a time you were up 200% is not doing badly at all.

The other obvious fact is that the PS5 is still not just expensive, but costs more than what the PS4 cost at this time launch aligned. It's kind of silly comparing sales of two consoles, launch aligned, and not factor in the price of those consoles.

What these sales declines are showing, is how badly Sony needs to drop the price.

Lastly, I think people need to be a tad bit realistic here, or at the very least factor in all the context. The Switch is due a successor, its sales should be down year to year. The Series X is a failing platform, and the PS5 is down from a stupid high perch last year and has still not seen an actual price drop since launch. 4 years in.
 

eerik9000

Member
PlayStation still hasn't recovered from the "$599 dollars" and "Riiiidge Racer!" memes. They really destroyed the brand. Absolutely nothing can be done to fix that.
 

eerik9000

Member
The Ps4 launch completely altered the conversation about Playstation.

Then Ps5 has totally altered right back again.
No way. Phil and Xbox are still struggling because of what Don Mattrick did 11 years ago. If Phil can't do it, nobody can!
 
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deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Inflation is a thing and US$ 70 [for some] games makes sense, still, since inflation is for everything in every place in the world, uh... food comes first than hobby. It's ok to have the numbers of a hobby going down. The only thing to really see is if those numbers down are mostly of it, because there's a lot to consider too

AAA games are messier than ever. Not every game needs to have 100 hours of gameplay, specially if the content is just copy paste of the same thing. The first God of War was a straight fun game from the start, and the new one is slow as shit, a lot of crying, and way over budget because "its not a game script. It's a script". Destiny was more known by people because of the biggest budget in the industry, not for the game itself... This is insane. I bet that Mario Kart 8 was way cheaper to produce than every GaaS ever put by others, and still is on the top charts 10 years after the original release. You know why? Because they know how to build a game that itself can lead a stretch

Another thing is to have a real reason to buy a new console. Sony lied from the start saying that "believe in generations" and yet didn't made a real move on it, releasing games than can be easily seen on the PS4. Microsoft is becoming a hell hole within their direction, having acquisitions, a lot of promises, making not much effort after that and cutting those off because the money didn't entered. Bitch, you're fucking your own shit

And the fans are the worst too. Sony boys are always screaming for Nintendo and Microsoft boys, even more arrogant than the company itself, but when Sony releases some of their games on PC, they're just their bitch. Microsoft boys are on the bushes nowadays because they know the best games from them are just... good, and doesn't make sense cheering for a service, because that's what the company wants to be. And Nintendo boys paying US$60 for the Princess Peach? You have to be fucking kidding me

Industry is sick, and everyone is to blame
 
We know series is down vs xbox one...which I don't know how that is possible.

But, how is ps5 doing? As long as it's ahead of ps4 everything's good.

Xbox one actually did quite well in the UK and US. it was somewhat competitive with PS4. They were still riding the success of xbox 360 but from around 2017 onwards, it was getting worse every year and here we are in 2024 with xbox in complete disarray.
 
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Maybe it gets a price cut this year with the release of the pro.

Components aren't cheap, it's not like it's overly expensive for what you get.

Everything has gone up in price thanks to inflation. I think for context we need to see if items such as mobile phones have decreased etc.

I don't think you can just blame it on price, isn't it like 150 pounds more than a ps4 and if ypu get the digital it's only like 50 to 80 pounds more? I seem to think the ps4 was 300 pounds but I could be wrong?

PS5 pro will be more expensive and ps5 won’t a cut

It’s a lot more expensive. PS4 got a big cut to 299 fairly early

The demand for AI chips has greatly increased the cost the last few years
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I think that Christopher guy isn't the smartest guy out there.

The fact is, PS5 was up ridiculously high last year because supply was finally meeting demand. Its also a fact that being down 30% from a time you were up 200% is not doing badly at all.

The other obvious fact is that the PS5 is still not just expensive, but costs more than what the PS4 cost at this time launch aligned. It's kind of silly comparing sales of two consoles, launch aligned, and not factor in the price of those consoles.

What these sales declines are showing, is how badly Sony needs to drop the price.

Lastly, I think people need to be a tad bit realistic here, or at the very least factor in all the context. The Switch is due a successor, its sales should be down year to year. The Series X is a failing platform, and the PS5 is down from a stupid high perch last year and has still not seen an actual price drop since launch. 4 years in.

I have a problem with this narrative. We have inflation. Compare the sales of nvidia gpus vs previous ones. Etc. Electronic items steadily increase in price and sell well. Plus there's a digital ps5 that's not that much more than the ps4.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
Like some said, 2023 was also the best year ever for a PlayStation console.

It dropping should be expected.

The Switch has a valid reason for drops.

Xbox tho?
 

Mr.Phoenix

Member
I have a problem with this narrative. We have inflation. Compare the sales of nvidia gpus vs previous ones. Etc. Electronic items steadily increase in price and sell well. Plus there's a digital ps5 that's not that much more than the ps4.
Doesnt apply here. Being that the consoles launch at a certain price. Eg. In the case of the PS5, $399/$499 vs $399 for the PS4. So based on that alone, inflation has already been factored in. Being that technically, a $399 PS5 in 2020 is actually cheaper than a $399 PS4 in 2013.

Now that aside, the reality of the comparison is this, by the PS4s 4th year on the market, it had seen a 25% price drop to $299. That would be a PS5 equivalent of $299 digital SKU and a $375 disk SKU. But not only did that not happen, we actually had a price increase for the PS5. This is something that has NEVER happened in console gaming period.

The electronic items steadily increasing in price argument, is covered with the fact that the PS5 was $100 more expensive than a PS4 at launch, but that's where the similarities end when comparing electronics in general, being that it's not like we are getting a new updated version of the PS5 every year or so. No, we are getting the same PS5 today that we got in 2020. That's like expecting a 4090 to cost the same thing it does 4 years later.

And this has never been what consoles are about, because the longer the PS5 remains at its price, the smaller the performance-to-price advantage it has over the PC becomes.
 
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Mooreberg

is sharpening a shovel and digging a ditch
Have to agree on hardware price drops being a necessity at this point. I'm in the US, but I believe the situation is analogous:

Cost of living - much higher than a few years ago.

Console prices - They've tapped out the $449 to $499 market.

Current schedule for first party publishing in 2024:

DL_508Tumbleweed_TUMBLEWEED_ROLLS_NEXT_TO_FREEWAY.gif


This applies to both PlayStation and Xbox. Though Xbox gets an extra guano medal for introducing a $349 1TB black Xbox Series S. Same price I paid for a Series X w/ Diablo IV a week after Black Friday.

The disc based PS5 and Series X really need to go down to $399.99. They are not going to have software to keep going at these prices until GTA VI comes out. And they should be lower MSRP by then anyway.
 
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mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
it will probably happen simply because they can’t cost reduce the ps5 like the ps4 was

It’s not the end of the console market. It will still easily outsell ps3

They can cost reduce. Sony execs are just being greedy bastards. There's no reason as to why the PS5 DE won't be $299 this Holiday season.
 

Guilty_AI

Gold Member
People shifted from SP games to live service games.
The rise of fortnite and other f2P games took most of people's attention.
More like shifted towards anything cheap. F2P, older games on sale, games that cost half of AAA titles and can be played for hundreds of hours. Why pay $70 to $130 for a 20 hour game that isn't half as fun as a $15 one.

Modern AAA games barely manage to offer the newest graphics nowadays, there almost no worth to most of them besides being "the new thing".
 

feynoob

Banned
More like shifted towards anything cheap. F2P, older games on sale, games that cost half of AAA titles and can be played for hundreds of hours. Why pay $70 to $130 for a 20 hour game that isn't half as fun as a $15 one.

Modern AAA games barely manage to offer the newest graphics nowadays, there almost no worth to most of them besides being "the new thing".
With too much games going around, it's hard to keep track what games comes out that year.

I usually wait for sales, since it's the only way to afford all of those games.

5 games at 60 is already 300. Or I can buy 10-15 games with that price tag.
 
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