There are probably just two types of guys who would ask for stricter rules: the guy with a secret stash of unsettling private videos and the guy who raises his hand to remind teachers about homework (and it’s often the same guy). Nevertheless, I feel like I can make a case for it, when it comes to the next generation of consoles.
The central point of the argument here is that consoles exist to provide a very different experience from the PC. Simple logic dictates that something, which is not a PC, can never be just like a PC, and it shouldn’t try to be, if you ask me. Consoles have their own strengths and a very important one of them, is their traditionally headache-free environment. We don’t buy consoles to do the complex shit, like getting Halo to run in Microsoft Word or something; we just want the ability to press a button, insert a game container of some sort and start blasting away.
Nintendo is one company that seems to realize this (or they haven’t gotten ‘there’ yet) but the other two have been introducing elements to disrupt that advantage. I feel like it’s very important that Sony and Microsoft take a page from Nintendo and tighten the screws when it comes to the following:
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
For Southeast Asia, new price changes.
Prices effective starting May 1st, 2026.
Replies(1)Looks like PlayStation took a hit with Marathon and is now quietly adjusting prices worldwide to recover the losses
Lets be honest raising prices doesn't do that when no one's buying it. I imagine the profit it greater selling 10 times more at a lower price
LMFAO Your comment alone says a lot more about you than anything else. When has one game not selling 10 million copies made a company raise the prices of their console? Then Xbox would be costing $5000 by now lol. You remind of the crazy drug addicts on the street rambling on about conspiracies. xD You sure you don't need a hug, buddy?
One game that Sony payed $200 million for. lol
Also, you sure were quick to get triggered. Maybe your the one who needs a hug?
If nothing else, we should be united against the real issue here. AI and unnecessary tariffs that are effecting all gamers.
The price increases are due to the RAM demand associated with AI and the US-Iran war. You can look to any business news website and local news to see that. Heck, even the 2026 Asus Zenbook Duo I've been eyeing has faced delays and has had a price increase of $400; that laptop has two specs. Asus is doing a staggered release with per-orders for the lower spec now and shipping in May and pre-orders for the higher spec that I'm eyeing starting in June. Basically, all computer manufactures are affected. It'll most likely start affecting smart phones too if it hasn't already. I can't remember the last time any major console maker (Nintendo, Sony, Sega, etc) increased the price of their console mid cycle outside of Microsoft just to make more profit.
War is causing gas prices to rise. Transport of everything requires gas so the prices of those items go up as well. So it does have an impact
The blockage of the Straight of Hormuz due to the US-Iran war has affected raw components used in semi-conductor manufacturing such as bromine, aluminum, and helium. Iran had attacked the liquified natural gas (LNG) plant in Qatar which is a large producer (1/3 globally) of helium which is used in semiconductor etching. So it's the both the war and the RAM crises.
Xbox boss Asha Sharma has discussed how component shortages will impact the company's plans for Project Helix.
When does this end? Its killing everyone. Consoles and PC. And for what? AI? The benefits of AI are completely outweighed by the negatives. And the government should have never allowed one company to buy up all the RAM.
This kind of proves this is an after thought product, most products like this are in r&d 5 years before they start mass producing. So they typically have the cost of components and things worked out long before assembly starts.
This is an assumption still, but I wouldn’t be surprised if project helix is similar to Scalebound,perfect dark and sod3. They had an idea but no actual execution other than concept stage. Being impacted by the ram shortage likely would also put this device 3-4 years out.
I’m not even sure MS has that endurance with Xbox yet
I mean.... what?
We're at a point that Samsung wont even provide their own phone department ram because they can sell it at higher prices to 3rd parties (AI). Its more profitable to sell the ram than make their own devices with it.
You think because R&D starts 5 years ago the 3rd party component manufacturers will honour that price? They'll sell it to whomever is paying the most today, not some gentlemens agreement they made years ago. AI farms will buy more volume at higher prices than any console manufacturer will. It'll be the same for Playstation.
Contractual agreements are not the same as “gentlemen” agreements. If you think that they work with their distributors a month before production then their entire business model is trash. They work with companies like nvidia constantly for building the graphics cards they need. They work with companies that build motherboards years in advance. This is what proper business planning does.
They are not buying components on a whim like a consumer. So again, considering the ram isn’t a singular module and is integrated into the motherboard I highly doubt they wouldn’t have a final schematic that they are supposed to be building around.
If they are delaying production another 3 years then it’s obvious again this is an after though project and is just trying to be responsive to their bad execution they had the last 14 years.
It also isn’t far fetched to use their failure to produce first party titles the last 7 years including the highly anticipated games I mentioned all being cancelled. That they would continue to you know… lie
Helix is going to be stupidly expensive
Instead of leaning into smarter upscaling techniques they're brute forcing hardware that will cost them dearly and it remains to be seen if it's genuinely going to provide a meaningful differential
I know in the oc.doace people like to brag about not using frame gen or dlss to get to high on a game but for the majority of players they happily use those technologies without a second thought
That's going to be ps6 vs Helix
While this does seem to be the case, I am encouraged by the statement from Microsoft about wanting to provide affordable options. If this means a Series S style Helix, at least there will be something affordable being offered.
It's called systematic inflationary. Yes we get it Microsoft, keep raising in the name ofall kinds of stuffs
Honestly if there was thing I learned from this generation is that new consoles arnt day one anymore.
I can wait 1-3 years.
Another important lesson from this generation: while Nintendo showed us that prices don't necessarily need to ever drop, we've now learned that waiting 1-3 years does carry some risk that prices increase. This generation is just bizarre in all the wrong ways.
The factors are largely external. Covid and Russia-Ukraine war causing inflation led to the first price increase in 2022.
Then we get Trump's tariffs increasing hardware prices, AI boom causing a RAM crisis, war on Iran causing a worldwide fuel crisis which impacts the cost of everything.
Gaming doesn't exist in a vacuum. The last few years have been a shitshow and lot of it was definitely avoidable.
LucasRuinedChildhood,
For sure. No disagreement on the external factors doing a lot of this. Where I have to gently push back however is on two fronts:
1. The pandemic definitely caused some issues: asynchronous development was a big issue and really complicated timelines and affected game quality. At the same time, when it comes to price hikes, it's really difficult to know what was genuine necessity and what was taking consumers for a ride. The pandemic brought about "stag-flation" which was increasing prices and stagnant wages, which was a problem caused by supply chain constraints. There was also "Greed-flation", where companies that were slightly affected or had no issues took advantage of the situation and squeezed everyone citing supply chain issues when there were none.
2. It's definitely true that the tariffs, AI boom, and RAM crisis were all things enabled by tech broligarchs throwing money at this caricature of a world leader, one of them being Satya Nadella. I don't think Sony and Nintendo have contributed much to this problem if at all, but Microsoft's Nadella I feel was instrumental in causing every one of those issues. Microsoft as a company contributed to both candidates (though they gave Harris 4x as much if I recall), but Nadella was all in on letting AI run wild. He paid for unregulated AI, and got a war that's not a war (even though Trump called it that at least five times on television) that screwed up helium access. So for me, I feel that one of the players in the gaming industry is a key architect of these issues, and for that reason I struggle a bit to think of it as "external".
i fully agree with all 3 of these
Yes to all 3 of these! I like to make a list on all three on how those could be better.
1. regulate example: $0.50 to $1 for costume DLC, $3 to $5 for a new mode, $10 to $15 for a full blown expansions.
2.I see some games doing it right. Like if any of you saw Gravity Rush trophy list. It shows the games trophy but it shows the DLC trophies below but separately.
3. I agree to stop retail exclusives! Should leave the exclusives to the special editions or collectors if people want that extra something. I like receiving the retail exclusives bu sometimes it's annoying seeing Best buy has something I like and then Gamestop has something better but I would like both!
I Agree with all 3 of these 100%:
3. Regulate DLC - The author has some good ideas for this, and I'd like to add Season Passes is basically a guarantee companies will sucker people into something they don't need. Companies like Namco have my respect because so far for Tekken Tag 2 they had their added characters free, and charge for soundtracks (something you don't NEED) and with Mass Effect 3 the Extended Cut did help soften the blow for a better ending without charging people for it.
2. Redo Achievements and Trophies - I'm not a big fan of either however I can see where the author is coming from on this; and this also ties back into the Regulate DLC because a lot of gamers feel they "have" to get those extra DLC packs just to get their score up again. I have other opinions about this however I don't want to sound biased so I'll keep them to myself.
1. Do Away With Retailer-Exclusives - The one thing the author didn't mention is 90% of these "incentives" these other retailers use come later as some big DLC package - which again goes back to the DLC argument. The author also makes a valid point about the constant complaining about second hand market yet places like Game Stop always have some sort of special going on to get people to buy it from them, then sell it back to them later.
This is one of the rare opinion pieces I'd approve because it's something us gamers as a whole need to address otherwise it's only going to get worse. Not only vote with your wallets but it doesn't hurt to voice opinions and speak to the right people about these types of situations and show that we're done taking it in the behind.
1.) Map packs for FPS games need to be cheaper and include more.
EX: 6 maps + 2 guns = $8.00
2.) If it's not a game, it can only cost so much as DLC.
EX: If it's not expansion pack or map back it HAS to be less than $5.
3.) No more selling avatar stuff....those are now Free bonuses.
4.) Lower price on controllers or do a deal.
EX: 2 controllers for $70
5.) Make better quality games that get me exicted to play them.
6.) Art Style is more important than HD "realistic" graphics
EX: Enough with the Brown & Grey.....In case you didn't know.....We ALL hate it.
7.) More Vibrant colors...^
EX: With a better art style you can depict what is what. The ground looks like the ground and the bricks the bricks and the shirt the shirt and doesn't blend with wall or pants or dirt......
8.) Actually be creative like indie developers are.
EX: Pitch good ideas to your boss...if he doesn't like it all of you need to ban together and let him know that he isn't as smart as he thinks he is.
- There is no way a Developer/studio would fire 20-30 of you at once for speaking up.
9.) Grow a pair !