There’s a very good couple of paragraphs in this article showing where the likely culprits are in the pricing of these consoles. There’s about as much competition now as there has been for the past four decades, but Moore’s Law has broken down.
Can’t speak for competition in consoles, but parts costs have radically increased, particularly GPUs (and it’s getting much more difficult to have generational leaps in graphics quality).
The implication for that is new console generations are unnecessary. At most, they only need to refresh aspects of the design to control costs.
And this is a direct result of Moore’s Law breaking down. As originally formulated, it isn’t just about density of integrated components, but the cost of integrated components. That factor is gone by at least an order of magnitude. Nodes are still shrinking the size (roughly in line with a 24 month doubling rate), but they’re not making it cheaper.
Some enthusiasts would have you believe that with prices adjusted for inflation the switch 2 is actually a deal at $450 and get mad when you say other wise
But then they won’t tell you that switch 2 uses the same type of capacitive analog sticks cursed with stick drift instead up updating to Hall effect sticks. Or that you really really don’t own the games because the games are actually just download keys.
Edit to add: Pro controllers also cost more than last gen and they’re lower craftsmanship and aren’t repair friendly because they weld plastic instead of using screws
I’m not implying there aren’t any improvements this time around I just feel like the improvements and corner cutting cancel each other out but that’s just my opinion
Existing switch owners can use any wireless controllers they already have with the switch 2. The pro controller 2 does have much nicer joysticks IMO, but you don't need one unless you really want the dedicated button for GameChat or the grip buttons
That’s not what this article is talking about though. It’s talking about how single generation consoles don’t get any price drops anymore. The comparison isn’t Switch 1 vs Switch 2 prices, it’s launch Switch 1 vs current Switch 1 prices.
Like let’s vent about Nintendo all we want, but at least let’s read the article first.
You misunderstood: current gen isn’t getting price drops while previous gen usually did. Current gen PS5/Pro and Xbox Series S/X are all actually more expensive now factoring in inflation (excluding the impact of the tariffs) than at launch. Since the Switch 2 literally launched two months ago, we can’t really talk about price drops for it, so we compare the Switch 1. The article headline is correct, and all of this is in the body of the article.
fair enough. I didn't scroll past the first graph in the article, which was comparing switch 1 prices. That plus this part of your previous comment had me thinking current-gen consoles weren't the topic.
The comparison isn't Switch 1 vs Switch 2 prices, it's launch Switch 1 vs current Switch 1 prices.
That’s why the OG Switch is possibly the last console I’m getting. Which is really unfortunate since Nintendo is finally now releasing an Air Ride sequel. 😭
I feel you, but there’s some good news! There’s an indie games team working on a game that’s Air Ride combined with the Chao Garden from Sonic Adventure.
Honestly can’t imagine why I’d ever consider a new console anymore. Got a PS3 gifted recently and it’s been a blast, InFamous, Jak & Daxter HD Collection, Motorstorm og & Pacific Rift, Sonic Unleashed, original TLOU, Black Ops Zombies with couch co-op.
Even being beat up the thing looks sleek as ever, it’s a CECHK03, Piano Black with Silver trim, 80gb.
Chrome trim too gaudy, I said what I said smh.
It even streams game data straight from my home server (via PS3Netsrv in docker), no USB hard drive required, no FTP or file transfer, and it actually runs faster than off the internal HDD (for the same reason it ran faster off BDROMs).
The poor thing can even play videos off Jellyfin with DLNA and a lot of patience.
Set up a custom fan curve too. Wrote a custom bash script of curl requests to the webman API to simulate a YLOD to trigger panic attacks in visitors.
As far as modern games go, most games I play aren’t on any console at all, and I’ve no idea what exclusives (if any) the consoles have.
You can’t compare current generations to previous because starting with the PS3/Xbox 360 the generations became artificially extended.
With no no new impending hardware, there’s no impetus to reduce prices and clear stock.
The OG Xbox 360 launched with a 20 GB hard drive (2005). That got a price cut when the 60 GB version was announced (2008) and that coincided with the much more expensive “Elite” with 120 GB. Similarly that had a price cut when the 250 GB version came out in 2009.
i mean, i don’t like pirating. i get a shitton of “free” (okay, minimal cost tax-subsidized if you want to pedant. probably a dollar a month that I’m gladly paying anyways) games from the library. i buy maybe one game a year.
You didn’t even mention Epic’s giveaways or the games that come with a month of Amazon Prime. If you needed a gaming library in a hurry, there are great games given away for free or cheap on PC all the time.
I was going to buy my wife the latest Lara Croft trilogy for Christmas a few years ago and then epic gave it to me for free so I had to actually think about her gift
But even before recent tariffs, modern console prices weren’t dropping nearly as fast as history suggested they should. In fact, Sony first raised the nominal starting price of the PS5 Digital Edition back in 2023, way before Trump’s current trade war was even on the horizon.
I’m not saying Trump is to blame but this is misleading. Trump hurt our economy with tariffs during his first term nearly 10 years ago. During 2023 he was releasing “Agenda 47” policies, in which he specifically mentioned more tariffs. Here’s Trump threatening tariffs 8 months before Sony raised the price
For regular people, Trump tariffs came out of nowhere in 2024. Corporations and people holding stock have different perspectives.
arstechnica.com
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