Toggle sidebar
Front-page

US gaming hardware market in worst shape since early 80s analysts warn

US gaming console market in worst shape since early 80s analysts warn

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella has stated that US console market is in deep decline as Xbox and PlayStation hardware sales continue to fall as prices keep climbing.

Xbox hardware sales are down 33% compared to a year ago while PlayStation hardware units are down 25%. Their lowest since 2013.

Prices are to blame with many feeling the crunch. You've heard it all before; the non stop surge of new AI data centres are eating up all the memory which has forced hardware manufacturers to up prices to compensate as they struggle to source components. PS5, Switch 2 and Xbox Series have all had price increases - some even multiple times. GameStop have even recently upped the price of used PS5 Pro's to £1399.99 amid the short supplies.

Mat Piscatella said:
The average price a consumer has paid for a new Xbox console in 2026 YTD ending August is $529, 26% higher than a year ago, while the average PlayStation console has sold for $597, 20% higher than last year. Both prices are at all-time US highs. Price sensitivity is becoming a real problem.
Click to expand...

Micron's CEO has previously warned that memory shortages are set to continue until at least 2028 and Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has said the company's console storage costs have quadrupled with another significant increase expected before the 2027 holiday season.

What do you make of it? Have you already gotten your consoles or have your plans to upgrade changed amidst all these price hikes?

:arrow: Source
 
  • Haha
  • Like
Reactions: Chrono_Nightmare, ChibiMofo and bonkmaykr
Click to expand...
I never anticipated my Xbox Series X to be an investment, but lo and behold, it's appreciated by 30%?!

Finances are tight enough to warrant a careful budget for new gaming related stuff right now, but even then this is just nuts. I like games, but I have other hobbies too, and I've been less and less invested in gaming as prices continue to rise. Given the current state of affairs, I'm simply not interested in the high barrier of entry for the latest and greatest in the gaming scene.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nephiel and bonkmaykr
In February the same genius analyst will be writing about record sales and how Sony and MSFT were not able to keep their GTA6 consoles in stock during the Christmas season. Anyone thinking this is '83/'84 all over again has no clue.

I have no interest in GTA6 and upgraded my PC last December. With Path Tracing and DLSS 5, 16GB of VRAM and 64 GB of RAM, I'm fine for another 8 years at least. Nor do I have to pay Sony, MSFT or Nintendo for the right to play online. In fact, 🏴‍☠️I don't have to pay anyone else anything.🏴‍☠️
 
Just gonna play on PC and pray nothing in there explodes for a while, otherwise I might have to sell a kidney. I guess worst case scenario I could probably sell my PS5 for more than I originally bought it lmao
 
eriols said:
It's weird because Xbox is part of Microsoft. Microsoft basically cannibalized Xbox for the sake of open AI
Click to expand...

I believe the original plan was to grow XBox, but the AI fad settled in and they started cutting costs everywhere to invest on AI.

And it's not even because AI is profitable, it's not, It's just to sell the investors this fake edge worth.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lightwo, HaloEliteLegend and Lop1
Of the two high end consoles, I still want a Series X over a ps5 in large part because of the backwards compatibility. Until that is addressed, I'm not interested in any so-called new games. By the second price increase, though, Microsoft priced me out of contention for a Series X. Even now the price of a used one is more than I was willing to pay for a *New* one.

In the same principle, I'm happy for those with a ps5 being able to jailbreak them. But because Sony killed off BC since the ps4 and are trying to kill physical media, I genuinely can't think of a single game I'd want the thing for.

All the while, I'm stuck with an in box Switch 2 I can't even think of powering on until a jailbreak finally releases. Chop chop, people! Seriously, for how quickly the same redditors moved to make functional ps5 emulation, one would think the Switch pro would've been jailbroken six different ways by now.
 
I expect a lot of this is because there's no real case for Xbox or PlayStation. They're both pretty obviously worse than SteamOS. I think the PS5 has two exclusive games and two more due before the system is obsolete. Sony won't allow discs from next year, and they see nothing wrong with removing content players have purchased from their accounts. It's a terrible platform. Xbox is better in some ways, but has no exclusives at all to sell the system.

Nintendo is a different story. Switch had a lot of very good exclusive titles, and Switch 2 looks like it'll bring more of the same. A decade from now, the terms 'console' and 'Nintendo' are likely to be synonymous, much in the same way 'PC' and 'Steam' are. I expect those will be the only two gaming platforms that matter.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lightwo and bonkmaykr

Site & Scene News

New Hot Discussed User Submitted

Go to forum More news

Popular threads in this forum