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.
Man, fairplay for bringing a different angle to things, but I'm not sure where to begin with this.
So, I'd like to present you with a full length novel, in and around my views!
. Well, not even full length, I mean, I could go on/expand further...
Apologies. My pre workout supplements clearly kicked in
I live near a uni... on the south coast. South west (just about, funny enough)I don't know which uni you are referencing, but most students are absolutely not driving nearly new cars and living in best accommodation... not even close to half or even a quarter, falls into that bracket. This is uni with thousands and thousands students. Tuition fees are nearly 10k a year. Accomodation is very much not cheap, relativeky speaking...even if sharing house with 5 other students. That's before food, clothes. I dont see many western students in shops like Flannels (southampton). I do see a lot of them in places like primark (been in there several times past few weeks with daughter...to buy grinch, stitch Xmas stuff... never set foot in there before) or h&m, zara etc. At best they're working somewhere part time on minimum wage, or very close to. Yes some will have wealthier parents that cover costs or send allowance, but they are very much in minority... as its always been. There are hundreds of thousands of uni students across UK. Do you really think any significant numbet of them have income or parents that allow them to lease/buy new cars, and cover all the other costs. Cars are a massive cost sink, more so with each passing year. What i see when I drive past Bournemouth uni, is loads of buses rammed full of students. When i drive through typical student population areas, such as winton, Charminster are not new nice cars at all. Usually 10 year old plus small size/small engine hatchbacks.
Bournemouth uni/council has built thousands of rooms/apartments in the town centre as the uni has significantly expanded over the last decade (big source of income for council, as the town moves further and further away from a place old people come to see out their lives in... stereotype from decades gone by). As you alluded to high st in town centre is dying. Shadow of its former self, as is way across most country from what I glean. Zombies/junkies homeless people far too prominent, sadly. Used to be confined to Boscombe years ago, but most had no reason to go there most the time, so was easy to avoid. Now it's spilled into town centre, and only getting worse.i only take my daughter at Xmas time or peak summer, so the junkies/weirdos don't stand out so much. Not sure what thr solution is, some no doubt are there through very sad reasons, but they are a menace abd make for an experience I'd rather my 8 year old daughter didn't have to experience at this stage in her life. One of them starting talking to her in quite an inappropriate/almost disturbing way, almost as if i wasnt even there, when she was around 3, and can recall horrible feeling in my stomach. We just walked away, I've never assaulted anyone, but did cross my mind briefly that day... obviousky I wouldbt, certainly not with my child there. Or verbally giving him a piece of my mind, but not worth it, as the bloke was clearly a class a drug addict, so who knows how it would hsve ended. We went into town last min to get her trainers before holiday. Had to move car after parking in street. As after pulling up half a dozen zombies turned up, acting in tgeir usual obnoxious way, sat on bench right next to my car. We sat there waiting for them to move on, having observed 2 of them cross the road and buzz and flat, quickly exchanging something when doir opened before scuttling back to the bench. So we drove off. Parked up, entered high st. 30 seconds later another zombie bent over throwing up in middle of sparse high st. You coukdbt make it up! There's always been a tolerance factored in by governments for 'underclass'... but it appears to be a growing number in recent years
These people living in town centre are not owning a car, full stop. As no parking spaces are built with the accomodations, and cost of public car parks is widely documented as being extortionate. These are the people on buses. Although public transport in the area leaves a lot to very desired, there are regular buses from the uni to the town centre or winton/Charminster. Plus train station just outside centre, easily walkable from where accomodation is built. There's very little reason for a student to go anywhere else outside of uni area, or town centre... apart from odd trip to jurassic coast perhaps. So really no point owning a car, certainly not a nice nearly new one... doesn't make sense having thst overhead.
What you're suggesting re consoles would definitely not help either. How would charging those amounts for a console boost sales of games? You'd basically be excluding large % of population from entering the market at all. There's a good reason games are sold at the prices they are... because no one in their right mind would spend 300 per game... apart from a very niche, single digit % of the population. Consoles hsvr never been about razor edge spec machines. They are mainly compact, convenient units, made for a certain price point... for mass market appeal.
Sometimes even then made at a loss. As the real profit comes from games and high volume of sales. Doing what you'd suggest woukd kill it dead, most likely.
The option for razor edge hardware is already there. You buy a PC. Which in this era are vastly more stable, plug n play then 20 years ago. I have a i9 extreme, 64gb ram, 4070 super gpu pc. I barely touch it for ganing tbh, as value convenience and comfort using my consoles... ps5 std and series x hooked up to top end Samsung qn90xxxx tv. Even though same games on pc can be ran at much higher fidelity. I use PC for my day or two working from home and don't want to sit at desk playing games or haul my fanatec /vr setup around the house...
I just completed rdr2 for first (what a game...). I played it on series x in the end, which is locked at 30fps on console still, for some weird reason. I also bought it in pc, and even though hitting around 100fps, with high quality graphic options enabled, i still preferred console option, laying on sofa. Same with witcher 3 before that, although that has been finessed for current gen consoles... higher fps.Still looked gorgeous on console, barely noticed difference plsying pc and console seperately. Weird I know, I'm not doubt different to many as people online claiming its different game as much smoother on decent pc ! But clearly it's lost on me, hence why despite working with/in tech for 25 years, I pay littke attention to digital foundry forensic analysis of games. As long as game somewhat current gen looking and sctualky decebt gameplay/story, I really dont care about ray tracing and whatever the latest acronym tech for some marginal graphical advance is. But appreciate everyone is different abd some do care. As long as looks current gen (ish). I'd no doubt notice Ray tracing on water in rdr2, but after initial 'tgat does look pretty/real', it would blur into the background, and woukdbt matter if it was there or not tbh.
Plus, with digital option becoming ever more popular, I assume profits per unit per game is higher than ever... as rules out logistics//cost of physical media. Although i haven't looked into this, so can't say with authority. As not sure what Sony charge devs/publishers for privilege of listing/hosting media in their data centres. But someone i work with went into it briefly a year or so back, abd seemed confident overall cost is lower versus distribution, logistics of physical media. I work for global financial mega corp, in tech line of business. So games should be lower imo. Devs, publishers need to have strong assessment around their processes, timeliness, how/what they deliver imo
Tvs are oma one off sale. A tiny % of people buy new tvs each year or two. Interesting why you choose argos too. I'd class them as pretty limited I scheme if tvs. John lewis better barometer imo. You could say that's middle, upper middle class type shop, but they stock new and outgoinb Sony, Samsung type ranges each year. Across the model spectrum.3.5k a lot for tv. But can go higher in their yearly ranges. But anyway, tvs are usually one off sale, that people have for years... I'm guessing usually kept as main tv i lounge for at least 3 (minimum), with wealthier consumers/enthusiasts perhaps 'relegating' tv to a bedroom, getting the latest shiniest tv at that point or longer. They're one off purchase though, you don't buy any tv media much, if
at all through sony/Samsung to consume (films/shows etc) ime, until you decide to buy another tv. And tbh, vast majority of households do not give a damn about incremental improvement on features or new features... such as fps, hdr barely noticeable colour improvement. Those 3.5k Samsung tvs release in spring each year are nearly half that price the following spring, as john lewis or whoever look to clear stock to bring in new range... which have over marketed, barely noticeable improvements. Hence why when dating and i go to women's houses, they tend to choose cheapest tv and only thing they pay attention to is size. Not all, but ime and others, men are more likely to get into the finer technical capabilities of tv. And even then, not every bloke wants 120hz, hdr and slightky/barely noticeable truer 'black' or whstever marketing makes out to be a massive deal, so cant justify it.
Most Women seem just as happy to buy 55/65" low end weird brand I've never heard of or budget tv for a few hundred off shelf in Tesco, asda or low end LG, Samsung etc. They don't care or see point in spend 3k for same size tv with better tech/features.
People may appear to have more wealth, but... figures show a low % of population in UK/US have more than a couple of months savings before they'll be in trouble, shoukd they lose their jobs. Debt, in form or mortgage, credit cards, loans, car lease has been rising for years. Obviously some people don't stretch debt, spend all their income on 'stuff', but large number do.
Plus I read a lot of young people do buy nice clothes, get car on lease, latest phones holidays etc. Not students of course, but those in fairly average to low pay jobs. Still living at home with parents, and predicted the age of leaving home will get higher than it has already done in past decade as cost of buying their own home is seemingly/perceptibly so far put of their reach, apparently many are just spending their money on stuff instead.
Unless you happen to work in a few industries, wage inflation has been near non existent to few % a year, whereas near enough cost of everything else has increased... passed onto consumer.
US and UK has been consumer driven economy for decades now. Bombarded by marketing for everything, every direction we turn. What you're suggesting, imo, is anti consumer and would move gaming to very small, niche number of users... which has never been what consoles are apart. They want mass market appeal, they want kids, young adukts playing them soon abd often as possible, as gets and keeps them buying, playing for decades. Therefore most spending into 5 figure amounts over that term. People mortgaged up to the hilt, on very average wage, with young famiky, being squeezed in every direction...who are casual gamers playing only fifa or cod for an hour aor so a couple of evenings a week do not want to be spending thousands on consoles.
So yes you may see odd student driving around in new car. But chances are it's on lease and/or they have wealthy parents. I live in Bournemouth, which is historically a lowish wage, high cost of living part of UK. Last time I checked the median wage, I think it was around 2021, and it was 27k. For a normal 3 bed house in a normal ok area, i e average schools, area not perceived as slightly 'rough' or beyond lower middle class, you're looking at 350 to 400k for 3 bed house...
the majority of people just getting on ladder in those with young kids are not leading the life of Riley.
I sometimes go to Southampton, for Flannels specifically, as i like nice clothes. I chat to people working in there fair bit, as I'm inthere couple of times a month. I mentioned there's a lot of ypungbAsian people in here buying stuff when I'm in here. Salesman said yes, they go to one of the Russel group unis... usually Chinese, from wealthy families who send kids to UK for western education. He said they spend a lot.... 60-70% of the shops monthly profits. They'll casually walk in and sometimes dropping 4, 5, 6, 7k on clothes (sells brands like gucci, canada goose, moncler, leboutin, stone island etc etc) in one go, like it's no big deal according to him. Clearly allowance sent by parents. I'm not seeing many younb English people in there at all, of uni age.
Anyway, not trying to be a d1ck mate, just don't think the outward projection you're perceiving paints true picture of the majorities financial positions. I think consumer driven thing has gone too far, personally. Majority seem to buy into spending most their outcome, they are not wealthy at all imo.
Idea of console hardware being priced as it is, is to get as many people as possible into the eco system, and to keep them there for decades. That's how Sony makes money from it. If anything, I'm hearing more noise around the long term goal being no console hardware at all. Not for another gen or so at least, but that's what were likeky to see, ratger than sharp hike in price of games/hardware. But i can see where you're coming from, as price of games haven't increased at same pace of inflation over last decades.
