Mibu no ookami
Banned
They saw Nintendo getting away with not dropping their price and figured they could do the same.
Now not only do they not drop the price but they increase it and resell you console accessories that were previously free...and somehow no one is really complaining
I tried to explain to people earlier in the year that with the rising cost of game development and increased pressure on Sony to be aggressive in M&A they were absolutely going to shift more towards a Nintendo model where their operating income and margins were higher.
One of the easiest ways to do this was to streamline production, design a more cost-effective sku, raise prices, and increase profitability from accessories.
All of this stuff was clear with Sony producing their own Pro controller, the release of their headsets, and hell they even got into the monitor game.
I've also been telling people that Sony is going to create their own storefront on PC. There is no way a platform holder such as Sony wants to PAY to have their games on PC when they really want to get PAID for their involvement on PC. As long as Xbox exists and Sony negotiates exclusivity deals for content, it makes sense to include PC in those deals as well. Right now you see games coming out on PS5 and Steam, but Sony can leverage those deals to include their storefronts on multiple platforms.
Sony is trying to transform its business model, something I called out as well. They run pretty razor-thin margins and have very little to show for decades of domination in the console market.
We'll see the end of exclusivity deals towards the end of 2024 and in 2025 on console. They just don't need them anymore and the ROI on that is better spent elsewhere.