With those prices, expectations go through the roof as well, can’t be just a 2026/2027 equivalent of a Series X and PS5.
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Or Series X/S and PS5 stay available and we go the incremental model and no next gen exclusives for some time. Or Xbox All-Access becomes the norm of how people purchase a new console.
Maybe All-Access was there all along for that reason; they knew what was coming up next gen. Also makes cloud more interesting every passing generation.
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True expectations will be wild.
I really think ps5 pro doesn’t cost much at all more to make than the ps5 at launch, they just aren’t subsidizing it. If Ms launches at 700$ for a digital console in 2026 and subsidized it, we could be seeing a console that doubles the perf of the ps5 pro when you account for RT and ML advancements.
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It’s going to be until next year to see if the Pro is really a good idea. If it does do poorly, this will actually do damages to them to the point of more layoff and/or whatever to compensate. It’s likely why Xbox doesn’t want to do one, especially where they’re at. Time will tell.
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But they aren’t subsidizing it for a reason, and even Xbox has spoken out against subsidy going forward. It doesn’t make as much sense with their inability to decrease manufacturing costs over time and increased costs/risks in game budgets.
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I don’t think it’ll do any damage no matter how bad it is, look at PSVR2.
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I mean support from in-house studios on VR has decreased, so, we’ll see.
Its gone Negative? Can’t decrease much more than zero.
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I think PS5 Pro doesn’t really take much work to support, so it should be safe either way.
Yeah for some people who can build PCs (a reasonably large number of the gaming community) or know people who can, if they don’t offer great bang for your buck many may go elsewhere.
I was going to get a Pro to go alongside my XSX, but when they announced that silly price I looked again at PC upgrades.
I’ve just bought the parts now - twice as much RAM as the Pro (32gb, with space to easily double it), an RTX 4070 Ti Super 16gb that with DLSS 3.5 can easily do the hardest ray-traced games at 4K, an AMD Ryzen 7800X3D which has the same number of cores but can clock almost twice as high and has way more and faster cache and a 4TB SSD that’s faster than the PS5 one.
Even if I needed to buy a case and power supply, it comes to just under twice the cost of the Pro.
But for a machine that can be easily upgraded, is superior in every way, I can install mods etc on games and use Game Pass and play PS games - as well as any other task I want.
It may sound a lot more money, but the “premium” market Sony are targeting if they’ve got any sense will just pick up a PC - cheaper to upgrade than a new console and Pro model each generation and performs better…
(I’m still keeping my XSX for the ease of console gaming, which is the one valid reason I can see against that market going PC now the value proposition is gone)
PS: Check back in in a few weeks, I may be cursing PC gaming again when I remember changing settings and compatibility issues - I’m hoping they’re lessened now and I’ve bought a powerful enough rig I don’t have to compromise…
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I think they would both sell but not to where previous generations were. I can see Sony selling 80m or so with Microsoft being around 40m or so. The hardcore fans will definitely buy them which I put at around 15m for each give or take.
I can see the handhelds doing something especially if they include a docking station for it or what I would do is include an HDMI out port.
I do see the consoles becoming a premium product and for those who simply prefer console gaming like me. Sure, some may go to PC but if you’re going to PC, spending less than at least a few thousand makes it pointless because if you’re not going all out on PC gaming, then I personally just don’t see the point in jumping to PC to begin with.
I don’t think Microsoft gets rid of their consoles regardless of the sales. Only way this truly happens is if A) the investors/shareholders have had enough of Xbox and convince Nadella to pull the plug which as long as they’re making a shit ton of revenue, I don’t see this happening or B) if third party publishers simply abandon the platform which would only happen if Sony was to take a huge loss on PS6 to where they just under cut Microsoft with Xbox and publishers see that consumers aren’t buying Xbox consoles so they figure why bother porting and releasing games on Xbox?
Of course, I do believe both will have cheaper alternatives (handhelds) and the premium more expensive products (consoles) and go from there.
I for one though welcome the higher prices because I want better specifications, capabilities and better stuff. I want the best CPU they can get at the time, 24GB of RAM minimum even though it should be 32GB of RAM because both will need it along with a slightly better GPU since visuals are at their peak. Ray/Path tracing is really the only thing I see as being worthy of having a higher end GPU. Otherwise, not much point as the GPU’s now are already great. Plus, a 2TB SSD.
When you look at all that, I can’t imagine both companies taking a huge loss on them but I also can’t imagine either company going cheap like a Nintendo and having old obsolete hardware because at that point, I think that would do even worse than being expensive because when it comes to Xbox and PlayStation, gamers/consumers are expecting top tier high end shit.
We’ll see what happens. I’m definitely excited though to see how it all plays out.
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I’m sorry for asking a dumb q, but how did Nick spend a grand on Tears of the Kingdom? Did he get a lot of custom hardware or he bought a scalped copy or he just sent a packet of extra money to Nintendo headquarters?
Or did a dingo steal the first 9 copies he bought?
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LE Switch, LE game, I think some accessories & Amiibos. Ozzie prices for all that added up to nearly a grand. He proceeded to play a few hours of it and never went back 
.
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Thanks for context. Makes me feel slightly better for having two switches that I only use for Just Dance at this point.
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I’m sorry but I just don’t see that. I checked and saw the 4090 cards have sold about 100,000 to date, I don’t see any hardcore numbering that high (15million) I just don’t see the masses buying consoles over 700 bucks readily. not to mention Xbox already takes about a $200 loss on current series S/X. 80 million is not feasible unless people are willing to take a payment plan which hasn’t been a boon for Xbox. Also, if they aren’t going to be subsidized, I can easily see them starting at 800 or even a thousand. The Xbox everywhere idea works well if Xbox becomes more like Steam where the Xbox app becomes the main platform having all Xbox content migrated to it. I do think the handheld though is feasible at 500/600 while the main console launches as a premium thousand-dollar product. I do think handheld will be the push and Microsoft will push and incentivize their partners to probably make console like PC hardware that use Xbox OS, or they will release a gaming mode with Xbox UI and features in windows.
I think they’ll definitely be less subsidized but not at cost for Xbox and PlayStation moving forward.
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It’s hard to think they’ll be subsidized at all seeing Playstation is now under their CFO and they’re penny pinching everywhere. I think Jez even said increasing margins is their mandate now and they haven’t been doing well with software. I think they made it clear at their last meeting they’ll try to use playstation moving on to grow their other businesses through broadening their contents to movies and other entertainment ventures. Xbox I think could but I get the feeling they don’t want to emerge or seem like a monopoly holder by out selling Sony in the console market. If Microsoft can manage to convince their fanbase of the Xbox everywhere thing they could then easily release a native Xbox app on the console and begin migrating all Xbox content mainly games and their fanbase to it. This way they don’t lose subscribers.
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People moan about Xbox having ads, but at least it’s the odd splash screen easily dismissed and those 2 or 3 little boxes on the home screen - while developer / publisher updates are in the game info Home widget you can remove.
Sony have updated PS5 to have full screen (blanking out your background) publisher / developer updates including marketing or YouTube videos on all games when hovered over / selected in the home screen - with no option to turn it off.
Guessing this will also appear on people’s new £700 Pros!
I’m guessing they’ll have to roll it back if there’s enough outrage…
(Fair play to PushSquare for the sarcastic byline too lol)
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