I think the cost of living crisis applies to the, forgive the obvious, less well off, I dont think it's the masses. I think most people have plenty of money I see it all around me, house prices going up, rents going up, food going up, recent inflation, it because everyone had too much money prices had to go up? Expensive clothes and coffee is gaining popularity. Most of the university students have nearly new cars and live in the best accomodation. The roads are busy, car demand high, lots of holiday makers. But at the same time I see more people becoming homeless, there are more street drinkers/addicts around. Households that were struggling before and now falling apart much more quickly. It's not the majority though from what I observe. Its become an even bigger gulf between the most rich and most poor.
The PS5 Pro sales are better than the PS4 Pro sales. I will take Sony for their word on that. This indicates a surplus of money compared to before?
Its hard to evaluate though. What the "big picture" is. What to do with interest rates etc. I just speak from my town in the south west of UK.
Oh almost forgot the county councils are practically bankrupt, the public purse is empty, blame government for that. Wealth needs total redistribution.
Electrical hardware is frankly really cheap. In the context historically. I think it needs to find the new normal pricing and be stable again.
Sony and Microsoft have been very cautious, thats their choice. To me the market is suitable for a standard Playstation at £999 and the Pro at £1499. But I clearly dont mean what we were given to be that price. Consoles should be cutting edge custom gaming hardware. The capability is a generstion behind. The newly launched Pro should be a £1499 beast of a machine. With Sony using its skills and chip making partners to allow for a bespoke unit that runs Gran Turismo to a degree 2 or 3 years ahead of what any windows PC could achieve, because no amount of brute CPU or windows API video card would have the capability of.
I think a Pro console should cost about half of what the most expensive TV in stock in a normal shop you can buy. I dont mean shops that sell TV for tens of thousands!
And should cost about the same as what the latest highest spec mobile phone there is. I think those numbers are ones to follow in the market to judge costs.
Highest cost for Apple 16 Pro is £1499. Most expensive TV instock is £3199 (Argos). So call it £1599 then.
This is why we are still playing PS4 games on a PS5 Pro....
I guess its higher risk, but they aimed really low for too long.
And I should mention game prices. They need to be much higher. About 15-20% of the ideal hardware cost. So for a top title like Gran Turismo it should retail at £300. Or 3 to 4 times the cost of a tank of petrol.
I have a strong feeling that at these prices there would be a lot less news stories of disgruntled employees unhappy with their management and working conditions.
Having said that what we will actually have to do is wait for PS6 and it will be what the PS5 should have been and GT8 that should have been GT7.
