PS5 debuts big base price hike

[Helxig 45,424]

12 hours ago, AsleepOnTheCeiling said:

But they already do absorb the costs. Consoles have never been profitable. The cost was already subsidized. They've just skyrocketed in the past year and I think Sony did an exceptional job at mitigating impact to customers. It's been a year of tariffs and increased supply chain costs and up until now the price wasn't impacted. At the end of the day gaming is still a hobby, and a relatively cheap one at that. Games have not increased in price at the rate of inflation, NES games today would cost $90 adjusted for inflation. Yet consumers can spend $70 on the high end to experience a 40 hour game that used to be 5-10 hours long. Hell, they can get access to a huge swath of games for $20/month. A PS1 adjusted for inflation I believe would also still be $550. That's almost a bargain when you consider access to other art forms. Lastly, videogames are very much still an art form. And Sony gives studios a lot of autonomy in what games to develop as well as give them creative control over the storytelling and mechanics of the game. We can't argue that we should pay artists fairly and then expect any different from the video game industry. 

Sure, credit where it's due. But the point about paying the artists and developers fairly, is that you know they'll never turn that around. I'd be happy to pay more if I knew it was going directly to the creative teams who were producing these works of art. I also might just by uninformed, but I really can't understand how such a popular product can be THAT expensive to mass produce. Once the assembly warehouses are  set up and the process is streamlined it's just plastic and wires. The internet says it costs around $450-500USD to produce a single console but WHY? Because it's computer parts? Is this related to data centres for AI buying all the world's ram? Idk it just feels odd to me that they can't get the process any cheaper

Also I guess just in a general sense I am so sick of, and angry about, entertainment and the arts in general becoming so commodified and increasingly expensive, and the insanely wealthy powers-who-be treating it more and more like a luxury and a high privilege. The world is slowly becoming more and more for the rich only. When the CEO of Livenation said he believes concert prices are currently underpriced because it's privelege to see a concert it started a firey rage inside of me that I can't put out. As life gets more and more expensive and our enjoyment of the experience of being alive is slowly diminished day by day we need escapism, art, entertainment, joy, fun, excitement, more than ever

[gagzus 23,416]

I’m not sure about the US but here in the UK it’s still expensive as hell to buy a PS5 secondhand and is the reason I moved from console to PC as my main gaming system.

Back in the day, I remember when the PS3 came out and you could get a secondhand PS2 for like £100 or so. The PS5 in the UK I’ve never seen one go down more than £350 or so. Which is CRAZY since it’s been out for ages and about to be replaced with a PS6 in the next few years.

[RAMROD 117,248]

The thing is, the price just won't ever go down even if things gone back to normal again. Since its 2020 launch, the base digital model has increased by roughly to in many regions, including the recent 2026 adjustments.

Watch PS6 will be the price of an iPhone or macbook pro