So this happened....Also, it takes effect April 2, which I found hilarious, because someone had the foresight to not have it happen on April 1. (Disclaimer: I didn't realize the Pro already increased to 750 before, so when I mention a 200 dollar increase, it's when the console was first released at 700.)
You and me both, Bubbles. This... is insane. That's all I can say at this particularly level of mental capacity. This console generation is... fucked. That's all I can say. That's all I can really say... I've been gaming for somewhere around 40 years, and I've never, ever seen a price hike like this... I've never seen a price hike on the cost of a console before this generation, let alone a second one, let alone the second one being this steep!
I remember when I bought my first console with my own money. That was the 8-Bit Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. I know, I was late, but my parents were adamant that it would get in the way of my schoolwork. So, after I graduated the fifth grade, they decided to let me use money earned on my report card to buy my first system. And, it was 100 dollars. Yeah... a console costing only 100 dollars. Now, the PS5 Pro is going to be 900 dollars, exactly one NES in 1990 short of a rack. Also, Xbox has gone up in price twice already: this generation with the Series X sitting at 650 (600 for an all digital) and the Series S at 400.
So, in my 40 years of gaming, I don't think I've ever seen a video game console hit that number (900). I mean, we had Sony's own PS3, which debuted at 600 dollars for the 60 gig SKU, but they quickly worked on bringing that price down after rough sales. There was the Panasonic 3DO that launched at 700 that never had a chance not just because of the price, but because of the abysmal library. Then there was the Neo Geo at 650, only because it was essentially an arcade board crammed into a console shell. The problem with the Neo Geo, however, was not the price more as it was the price of their games, which averaged more than a couple hundred dollars because of all the RAM used in their cartridges: you were essentially buying encased arcade boards.
With this outliers out of the way, gaming has for the most part been affordable. In terms of inflation, the average cost of consoles has stayed relatively the same, so one can make the argument that gaming has only become cheaper with everything else being impacted by inflation on a greater scale. Games themselves have also hit 80 dollars but that was Nintendo testing the waters, and Xbox embarrassed themselves badly thinking their consumers were ready to pay 80 dollars for Outer Worlds 2, doing a complete 180 I think it was like a week later. Nintendo has yet to drop another original first-party title at 80, but I wouldn't put it past them to sell the new Zelda or Mario at that price.
So what's driving up these console price tags? Well, last year, you could blame tariffs. Nintendo delayed their Switch 2 preorders trying to figure out whether or not their prices would be affected by the tariffs, but in February of this year, Congress shut down tariffs on a lot of things, including electronics, so the major cause of these prices skyrocketing can only be one thing: the rise of AI.
AI development is a juggernaut right now. Every major tech company trying to secure their own models and compete with them are essentially buying up whatever land they can get their hands on and devouring resources at an astronomical rate to make RAM and chips and other components. NVIDIA is a monster right now, being the sole supplier of these components to select few companies at exorbitant rates. Not taking in account any of the harrowing factors AI development has on environmental conditions or jobs in the industry, NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang was essentially quoted "It's good for business."
Meanwhile, us gamers have to pay the price. Remember when PC gamers got hit hard trying to find the newest graphics cards at reasonable prices because people were buying them up to mine cryptocurrency? That was just from individuals buying up just graphics cards. Now, multiply that by a magnitude of three and you have entire corporations buying up not just graphics cards, but RAM and raw components in their never ending quest for the next data center, and now the effect has bled into the console industry.
And that's just AI's influence with getting the electronics manufactured. This isn't even taking into account the effect AI is having on the development of games themselves. Right now, backlash from gamers when they detect any game having any form of AI generated assets is scathing. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lost a Game of the Year award for its use of generative AI, and all they did was forget to swap out a placeholder with actual art. Gamers don't want generative AI in their games. Take one good look at the travesty that is Black Ops 7 if you really want to understand why, yet here comes Asha Sharma, new CEO of Xbox, fresh from Microsoft's own AI division, insisting she's not going to shove AI into Xbox games, yet at the same time is facilitating Copilot to be introduced into Xbox. If there's any woman I can't trust as far as I can throw, it's her.
A 200 dollar increase on a console. I just... I'm still stunned over here. Granted, it was already an expensive console to begin with, but a TWO HUNDRED DOLLAR increase on a console? There's sticker shock, and there's just shocking. And that's shocking! Is Sony not aware that they just made their already expensive Pro model even harder to afford? With prices on everything else still on the rise, people are going to be tightening their belts even more, and these consoles are going to be much easier for people to rule out of their budgets. Yes, there's always people who say that gaming is a luxury. If you're struggling to buy groceries or pay rent, maybe gaming isn't the right hobby to get into right now, but I've also been of the mind that gaming is for everyone. With such a high price of entry now, that makes it harder for gamers on a budget to enter in through the secondhand market.
And ultimately, it leads to this: the fewer consoles a company sells, the fewer games they'll sell for it. That has a vicious effect on developers, because if the publishers aren't seeing an immediate turn around, they'll shutter the studio. This has already been happening, and is happening more frequently. In fact, investors in Pearl Abyss - makers of Crimson Desert - bailed, dropping their stock by 30 percent after one day, seeing the Metacritic score of 78 on the PC. Ironically, the game would continue to go on to sell more than three million copies. The effect of investors on the video game industry is a subject for an entirely different blog.
I keep hearing rumblings that the AI bubble is about to pop, and I seriously hope this is true. Console prices are rising. PC components are rising. Electronics in general are rising. Developers are taking shortcuts with AI in the games. Artists are losing work. I still have a theory about AI data centers adding to global warming from all the heat they put out. Everything is hitting the extreme far too quickly. I don't even want to get into war applications...
So yeah, I really hope things slow down with AI, because I thought Skynet was scary enough without seeing a console go for nearly 1K.
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