Xbox boss says current-gen console prices ‘won’t come down’ like they used to | VGC
Phil Spencer also says a mid-gen refresh would create “a ton of complexity"
Well, the USD is worth 15% less today than it was when the consoles launched. As such, keeping the price the same is the same as discounting it with a stable currency. The price today is the same as $425 at launch, so prices have come down we just don't see it reflected in the dollar price.
In addition to that we've passed that era of Moores law. New hardware is coming out with diminishing returns unless it's big and expensive. We're long past the era of every 2 years hardware is released with exponential returns in power and efficiency rendering everything that came before obsolete.
Hell even from an aesthetic point of view Red Dead Redemption 2 came out almost 5 years ago and with higher settings on PC still holds up as a pretty game. The biggest factor holding graphics back these days is development time and money.
Also fab production is a fundamental limitation to a greater degree than it was in the past, prices typically fell quickly as a process node gained better yields and could be made on less busy production lines but you have a much higher fixed cost just to convince TSMC or whoever to put you high enough up in priority to get your wafers made at all.
Well I make 3% more now because companies refuse to give raises compensatory with inflation let alone actual raises, so actually it’s more expensive.
I've been feeling like console generations don't need to come as often as they do now and this only strenghtens my view. Rather than making new consoles as tech evolves, since we are facing diminishing returns, they are making them larger and more expensive. Given how the economy is, and how much people can afford, if they expect to keep making future consoles increasingly more expensive, they'll find quickly that there is a limit to how much people are willing to pay for an entertainment device.
Not to mention that the production costs to keep up with the graphics potential of these extremely powerful consoles are also increasingly unsustainable. It's time to focus on game design above anything else.
New consoles don't come out in response to new technology, though. They never have. The next console generation comes when people stop buying the last one.
They still need a reason for people to buy them. The usual one being "look how much prettier it is!", but they are getting to a point the leaps of graphical fidelity enabled by technology are smaller and smaller, but the costs of making everything higher definition are skyrocketing.
They are following the Apple playbook. Put out a new system every 2 years and eventually will find some arbitrary ways to force users to upgrade.
I don't think that is going to work as well for consoles as it does for phones. People can just keep playing older games. Living in a third-world country I know that too well. And if they try to sabotage the consoles, that might drive people away from console gaming entirely.
Well he's not going to say " oh yeah, wait a year or two to buy our hardware for way less" now, is he?
Well lots of people wait for prices to come down, that's what I've always done. Guess I am sticking with PC.
With Microsoft and now Sony releasing their first party games on PC, there really isn't much point to own a console outside of Nintendo.
Do I need to play the new Spider-Man or God of War right now? No, I'm happy to wait for them to release on Steam.
