• @TheGrandNagusEnglish
    7•2 months ago

    The PS5 Pro pricing is testing the waters for PS6 pricing. If they can’t sell well, they can easily drop prices (the PS5 Pro barely costs more than the PS5 to produce). They’re just gathering data on what people will accept.

    Doing that with the PS6 is too risky. Sony botched the launch of the PS3 and it backfired on them hard letting MS get a foothold with the 360. MS then did the same with the XBone launch and the PS4 ran away with it.

    If people signal to Sony now that the PS5 Pro is way too much (it’s £700/$913 here ffs), then the PS6 will be cheaper. Don’t accept their greed.

    • @[email protected]English
      2•2 months ago

      I mean, a pound don’t buy what it used to. We’ve had rampant inflation, and it’s going to be hard to keep any next gen console in a price point that we think of as suitable. I mean, this is the first gen where the price has gone up during it. PS2 slim went down to under £100 by the end. I paid about £80 for a GameCube late in the gen. I remember Xbox having to give money back to people because they launched at about 300 and Sony immediately went down to £199. It was carnage.

      £299 felt like a standard price point for ages. My Amiga 1200 cost about that in the early 90s, and I paid the same for a PS2 nearly 10 years later, and the Xbox 360 was about the same.

      £700 feels like a piss take though, and the sales figures will surely reflect that. PS6 has got to be under £600 I reckon, and we’re probably about 5 years away from that.

      • @TheGrandNagusEnglish
        1•2 months ago

        No, but it’s been getting stronger relative to the dollar consistently over the past 2 years. But we aren’t seeing that in prices.

        I’m not expecting it to be like ~2007 time where £1 was $2.

        But things should definitely be better than it was 2 years ago, relative to USD pricing.

        • @[email protected]English
          1•2 months ago

          The dollar ain’t buying what it used to either.

          Also, remember that our prices include VAT, so we slap 20% on it right there. That £700 is £583 excluding the VAT.

          That’s still 10% more than in the US doing a direct currency conversion, but it’s not quite as bad as it first looks.

          Still a lot of money for a games console though, especially a mid gen refresh. Paying at the start of a gen for 8 years gaming ain’t too bad when you look at it per year. PS5 Pro will be over 4 years, and on that alone is piss-poor value.