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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.
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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
 
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A PS5 costs over a hunderd pounds more now than it did several years ago. Then there's the non stop micro transactions, paying to access servers, ads and Sony delisting things you already bought and then telling you that you don't own the things you paid for and complain when you modify your own hardware.......so meh!

I'll Stick to PC's from now on and play the thousands of free games I can download for that and already have and most people usually have several consoles in their houses already with nowhere to put a new one and probably haven't even finished all the games they have for those. So it's no surprise people aren't buying new consoles and shelling out big money for the latest crappy games with non binary characters which 99% of normal people find annoying.
 
Last edited by snuffbot1,
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shaunj66 said:
stop surge of new AI data centres are eating up all the memory
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and yet people are still glazing the technology that ai brings to the consumers. i have yet to see the ai that powers stuff like claude being used outside of the WOW factor that they advertise it as.

trust me, i see the potential, but that same potential is being used for stuff that isn't necessary, at least to me.
 
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snuffbot1 said:
A PS5 costs over a hunderd pounds more now than it did several years ago. Then there's the non stop micro transactions, paying to access servers, ads and Sony delisting things you already bought and then telling you that you don't own the things you paid for and complain when you modify your own hardware.......so meh!

I'll Stick to PC's from now on and play the thousands of free games I can download for that and already have and most people usually have several consoles in their houses already with nowhere to put a new one and probably haven't even finished all the games they have for those. So it's no surprise people aren't buying new colsoles and shelling out big money for the latest crappy games with non binary characters which 99% of normal people find annoying.
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That's stupid because PS5 has been out for years, even the Pro doesn't feel like a vast improvement, but being the sucker for PlayStation "Pro" consoles I bought one.
 
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snuffbot1 said:
A PS5 costs over a hunderd pounds more now than it did several years ago. Then there's the non stop micro transactions, paying to access servers, ads and Sony delisting things you already bought and then telling you that you don't own the things you paid for and complain when you modify your own hardware.......so meh!

I'll Stick to PC's from now on and play the thousands of free games I can download for that and already have and most people usually have several consoles in their houses already with nowhere to put a new one and probably haven't even finished all the games they have for those. So it's no surprise people aren't buying new colsoles and shelling out big money for the latest crappy games.
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Fixed your comment for you so that it's more likeable.
I have no idea why some of you people need to drag stuff into this that any normal person doesn't care about at all.
 
You could look at it that way, but you can also see that playstation is making more money now than ever by a huge margin. i guess xbox is doing pretty poorly though.
 
Why is it always about the 'big three'? No, I'm not talking about valve, as their scale is tiny right now (which is probably for the better), but the mobile market.
While 'game journalists' focus on AAA releases, the so called gamers are shrinking in size while the next generation games exclusively on their phones.
 
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I mean yeah, the only people who would buy at these prices are the most hardcore Playstation/Xbox fanboys, and they all bought their consoles at launch. The value just isn't there any more for the average Joe, especially given how much more software their existing PC/phone/tablet has access to relative to ten years ago.

Series X had already been sputtering for years before ramaggedon, and last I checked, PS5 had sold close to 100 million units. It's selling people on the PS6 that's gonna be damn near impossible given the current consumer economy.
 
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