The Famitsu data includes several days before the unwelcome announcement. Even so, buyers are already shying away from PlayStation consoles that are straining wallets . The PS5 with optical drive moved 558 units, down from 2,801 sold the week before. Not faring any better, adoption of the Pro went from 4,662 to 840.
Part of a much larger trend of companies finding out that there is a limit to consumer spending, and most consumers are already beyond it.
I don’t think Sony is discovering anything. They’ve said the focus this year isn’t on console sales but rather the bigger monetization of the existing userbase. They probably thought that since they’re not planning on selling a lot of units anyway they might as well ask extra from anyone determined to get one.
I’m willing to bet it’s at least in part to anchor a higher price for the PS6. It’ll “only” be a little more expensive than this, so why not buy it?
Given wealth inequality growing in every country, expect this trend to continue.
Higher prices for everything as more and more products become luxury only goods, and everything else is for the peasantry.
…the average worker in Africa would need to spend more than a year of wages to buy an Xbox or a PlayStation. Game consoles are in fact luxury goods, we just take them for granted.
It’s because serving the rich creates higher margins, which in turn means higher chance of survival for the company during an economic downturn. In the clothing industry the companies that fared well during the previous recession were companies that target the elites like Hermes. While many brands that served the middle class went bust.
You see this trend in many industries. Like the choices of low budget cars are getting slimmer each year. While the sticker price of mid budget cars have gone up.
That’s why I got an Atari 2600 and not an original NES.
Maybe. I find that to be a really weird business strategy. But, maybe their analysts are very confident that console gaming is rapidly dying. If not… shrug.