this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2026
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Games

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[–] LostWanderer@fedia.io 177 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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!

[–] DrPop@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago

This is true. Who wants to spend all that money at once. My PC may be more expensive than I console but I spent no more than $250 at a time as I upgraded it. People don't need $1000 graphics cards to play modern games.

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[–] Infernal_pizza@lemmy.dbzer0.com 144 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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?

[–] Anafabula@discuss.tchncs.de 48 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Some people really want to play gta 6 before it comes to pc I guess

[–] aksdb@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (6 children)

That’s how I ended up buying a PS3 back when GTA V was released. Well, that and Gran Turismo and wanting a Blu-ray player. But it was still not really worth it.

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[–] neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 78 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Gaming in general is way too expensive now.

At least we have retro games to play instead.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (14 children)

Which I'm playing on my Steam Deck! Which starts at only...wait, 750 dollars?!?

Edit: $790

[–] Yenaplus@europe.pub 21 points 1 week ago

Bought it when it came out 419€. I dont see myself paying twice the price today.

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[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I dont really feel anything for newer games. Theres been very few that ive been excited about. Graphics dont woo me in the slightest.

I feel ill booting up any console after the 360. Even the 360 was the start of enshittification.

"Wait, you mean this has no internet, you put the game in and it works? Wait, you own the game? Sony vs Illinois made that illegal years ago! no sign in or email? How do they track your eye movements for serving ads? How do they count your verification cans ?" -2040 kids.

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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 69 points 1 week ago (8 children)

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.

[–] lemmyng@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

These companies have said plainly that they don't see prices returning to pre-pandemic levels even if the current economic crisis is resolved. Corpos are too greedy, and the people in power are even greedier.

Just another flavor of rent never goes down.

[–] blackberry28@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 week ago

And yet somehow there are millions of people preordering GTA 6 for 100 bucks lol

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[–] SplitTheUSInFour@lemmy.world 58 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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?

[–] FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe 24 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Now they blame millennials and gen z kids for ruining gaming

And then they switch to everything being a live service so instead of buying games you just have access to the "whole library" of games (for whatever payment tier you're in) which they will change and remove games without warning and deleting all of your progress unless you pay them at least $20 a month for cloud saves

Oh and the only games in the games library are ai slop vibe coded games that are unplayable carbon copies of each other

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[–] BigMacHole@thelemmy.club 57 points 1 week ago (10 children)

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!

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[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 49 points 1 week ago (5 children)

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

[–] ZAP@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 week ago

Yeah! Everything muat be digital and if someone still wants the box it can just have a paper with a code in it.

I mean who would like to play the single player game about 5 years later when the servers are down?

Right?

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 48 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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

Such a mystery.

[–] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 week ago

Not to mention they explicitly stated disc sales are dead. All my console games are physical, so I will no longer buy consoles games or consoles. Seems like the way to go.

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[–] 404found@lemmy.zip 48 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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?

[–] DrSoap@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Microtransactions, ads, no offline modes, you don't own your own games any more... well they topped all of it with the new console. You buy games that are just empty boxes. Might be a slip of paper in there letting you rent it for $80 flat fee, but they'll take that game back any time they damn well please.

NOW BEG FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT PEASANT.

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[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 43 points 1 week ago (5 children)

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.

[–] nomy@lemmy.zip 19 points 1 week ago (5 children)

If I have to drop nearly $1k on a gaming platform the money is so much better spent on a PC anyway.

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[–] nullspace@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago (6 children)

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.

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[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 40 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Can't play games when hungry.

[–] invertedspear@lemmy.zip 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, indicators are indicating. Things they don’t seem to talk about. Used car lots are empty while new car lots are full. The tourist restaurants no longer have waiting lists. Gaming is a luxury expense, as in we don’t need it to survive, while new game prices are higher than they’ve ever been. I’m willing to bet most if not all luxury spending is down.

Prices are high and companies decided shitty AI is better than good people. So jobs are getting scarcer or paying less.

In the words of my kids: we’re cooked fam.

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[–] Soggy@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

You've clearly never seen me ignore all my biological needs to play games for 14 straight hours.

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[–] LemmyEntertainYou@piefed.social 38 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] frostypanda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (14 children)

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.

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nintendo's numbers

N: "here is a new Mario game or something, whatever, nobody cares anymore, $80 pricing why not"

Customers: excited screaming and trampling each other

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[–] Tango@piefed.ca 36 points 1 week ago (5 children)

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.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (8 children)

Gabecube is projected to sell several hundred thousand copies. PlayStation 5 is close to 100 million units sold.

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Given that RAM prices are up on everything, probably not.

People aren't avoiding new consoles because they object to Sony's business practices. They're avoiding them because they've been priced outside of the "toy" category.

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[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

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[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 week ago (12 children)

Og Xbox rocked. Because sega engineers made it.

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[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 31 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Congratulations to PCs for winning the console wars :3

[–] Bread@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The win is in vain if you can't buy PC hardware either.

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[–] likebudda@reddthat.com 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

Another industry with its bottom falling out.

[–] Pratai@piefed.ca 23 points 1 week ago

Oh no! Major corporations are not making billions?!

How can we help!

/s

[–] HalfSalesman@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

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

[–] MasutaHarada@thelemmy.club 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (21 children)

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?

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[–] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

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