They will sell fine everywhere except the US. I don’t even want a switch2 because the bullshit Nintendo did with the virtual carts. God it’s a fucking PITA to even play my first gen switches because I have to be sure both consoles are powered on and connected to the Internet to “activate” the cart that was active on the other.
“Going to be”? I feel like this generation already failed at the starting line. I can’t name a single PS5 game I’d want to play that doesn’t already look and run better on my PC. The Switch 2 is running on several generations-old hardware so it’s already a non-starter. And Microsoft screwed up their naming convention so badly that I don’t even know what the latest Xbox is called.
Hell, this console generation is somehow already five years old, and I still don’t know anyone who actually owns one of these systems. Everyone I know is still using their PS4s, XBones, Switches, and gaming laptops with 10, 20, and 30 series Nvidia GPUs. Hell, I haven’t seen any hype for modern console gaming since the XBOX 360/PS3 era. No one cares about owning the latest and greatest gaming system anymore. Everyone’s happy with what they have.
I can’t name a single PS5 game I’d want to play that doesn’t already look and run better on my PC
The keyword here is “my”.
It’s not just the console generation that is suffering. PC gaming is dying too. Crypto dealer the first blow, now AI. I’m still running an RX580 that I bought for $180 back in 2019. I was planning on buying a 9700XT at launch this year. Still not a great value- an MSRP of $600. Adjusted for inflation that’s still ~2.6x the price and it’s not going to give me 2.6x the performance. But even then it was impossible to find a card for $600 - even months later the cheapest one on nowinstock is $700, and those are hard to find. That’s JUST the GPU - you still need another grand or more to build a decent PC around it. Even with this price increase, the base PS5 is $550.
I’m not trying to make this a console vs PC thing. They all suck right now. The only good values for gaming is on the fringes. The Steam Deck was an incredible value when it launched, and only looks better today. Other cheap, low-powered solutions like Chinese handhelds and android TV boxes loaded with pirated old ROM’s. Mini-PC’s that are good enough to handle 5-10 year old PC games… At 1080p or less with the settings turned down bit. Maybe an Xbox Series S might be a decent short-term value, especially if you are a person who loves game pass or just wants to play free games like Fortnight.
It’s looking bleak. Not just videogames but everything. Food, medicine, clothing, housing.
I mean, that’s just diving into the classic Console vs PC arguments that have been going on for years. My point is that it’s gotten worse for both. We can argue all day over which is the best way to go in 2025.
What I think we CAN say for sure is that buying any sort of gaming device in 2019 is better than any option in 2025. I’m using 2019 because that was the year I built my PC for $1k total, and that holiday season I bought my PS4 - a slim model that came bundled with Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, and The Last of Us 2 all for $199.99. Either of those deals blow pretty much anything today out of the water.
I guess profits are up, the PS5 is selling well so far, and it looks like the Switch 2 is tentatively on place to be one of the better-selling units of all time. Maybe the average consumer just doesn’t care about the bang for their buck- they just want the new shiny thing.
Astro Bot. I’d argue it is a system seller. It’s as wonderful as Mario Odyssey was for the Switch 1, one of the greatest platforming adventure games I’ve ever played, has a breathtaking soundtrack, gorgeous visuals and art style, incredible dynamic controls especially with the PS5 haptics, and a top 10 game for me. I had so much fun playing both Astro Bot (paid) and Astro Bot’s Play Room (free game). This absolutely deserved game of the year, and I’m happy it won. Asobo (developer) showed their full passion and love for gaming in this gem, and to play it is well worth the price of a PS5 in my opinion. It’s that good. And I’ve been a PC and Nintendo gamer for a long time.
I hope it’ll come to PC one day so that others can experience it. PC won’t have the tantalising PS5 haptics that immerse you into the game (the incredible adaptive triggers as you’re climbing, as an example, or walking through grass in that game and feeling the gentle scintillating haptics in the controller), but regardless, it’s a magnificent game that I want everyone to experience. I can’t praise Astro Bot enough, it’s such a gem.
Wow thanks! Didn’t know that. I remember reading about it when it first came out and gamers didn’t have much compatibility and could only get standard vibration with Steam input, probably around when the console first came out. I now see there’s full support, and while most devs can use Steam input, there’s a new DSX version for PS5 that claims to support adaptive trigger haptics on Windows. I game on my PC with KBM and an Xbox Series controller though. I don’t know how well PS5 haptics will work on my Linux PC though.
The only one I know some people have is Switch2 from my friend group. And its mostly mario kart. They stopped playing after a bit so it will be interesting to see what will occur there.
Overall you dont buy the system for the system, usually you buy it for hte games. And like you said…if the games are not there (PS5 games vs say steam/pc) then people are not incentivized to get it.
There’s a good chance I won’t be buying into the next console gen. Too damned expensive now for a walled garden. PC costs more up front, but there are much more affordable options for playing games on them.
Same. Waiting for Metroid Prime 4 to release so I can play it on my hacked Switch, then it’ll be no more new Nintendo games until/unless there’s a viable Switch 2 emulator someday.
The issue won’t be the tech, since it’s out of date, but defeating whatever security Nintendo baked in as well as managing to avoid their army of lawyers. There is certainly a lot of motivation for hackers to get one up and running, since their games are highly desirable and they’re a pretty hated company by the kinds of game preservationist types that would usually put in the work of making an emulator. I’m figuring it’ll be a while, but if not, great!
The US is the biggest market for all consoles and most AAA games are made there as well. If they suffer there enough, it will affect users of them everywhere eventually.
Somehow I think this generation of consoles are going to be suffering.
They will sell fine everywhere except the US. I don’t even want a switch2 because the bullshit Nintendo did with the virtual carts. God it’s a fucking PITA to even play my first gen switches because I have to be sure both consoles are powered on and connected to the Internet to “activate” the cart that was active on the other.
Nah, tariffs didn’t help, but there are other economic factors and trends here that have been slowly at work for a very long time.
FYI there is a fix for the virtual Cart thing.
“Going to be”? I feel like this generation already failed at the starting line. I can’t name a single PS5 game I’d want to play that doesn’t already look and run better on
myPC. The Switch 2 is running on several generations-old hardware so it’s already a non-starter. And Microsoft screwed up their naming convention so badly that I don’t even know what the latest Xbox is called.Hell, this console generation is somehow already five years old, and I still don’t know anyone who actually owns one of these systems. Everyone I know is still using their PS4s, XBones, Switches, and gaming laptops with 10, 20, and 30 series Nvidia GPUs. Hell, I haven’t seen any hype for modern console gaming since the XBOX 360/PS3 era. No one cares about owning the latest and greatest gaming system anymore. Everyone’s happy with what they have.
The keyword here is “my”.
It’s not just the console generation that is suffering. PC gaming is dying too. Crypto dealer the first blow, now AI. I’m still running an RX580 that I bought for $180 back in 2019. I was planning on buying a 9700XT at launch this year. Still not a great value- an MSRP of $600. Adjusted for inflation that’s still ~2.6x the price and it’s not going to give me 2.6x the performance. But even then it was impossible to find a card for $600 - even months later the cheapest one on nowinstock is $700, and those are hard to find. That’s JUST the GPU - you still need another grand or more to build a decent PC around it. Even with this price increase, the base PS5 is $550.
I’m not trying to make this a console vs PC thing. They all suck right now. The only good values for gaming is on the fringes. The Steam Deck was an incredible value when it launched, and only looks better today. Other cheap, low-powered solutions like Chinese handhelds and android TV boxes loaded with pirated old ROM’s. Mini-PC’s that are good enough to handle 5-10 year old PC games… At 1080p or less with the settings turned down bit. Maybe an Xbox Series S might be a decent short-term value, especially if you are a person who loves game pass or just wants to play free games like Fortnight.
It’s looking bleak. Not just videogames but everything. Food, medicine, clothing, housing.
Then again, a cpu and gpu from 2018 still plays 90% of the Steam library so… more? Less? Relative.
I mean, that’s just diving into the classic Console vs PC arguments that have been going on for years. My point is that it’s gotten worse for both. We can argue all day over which is the best way to go in 2025.
What I think we CAN say for sure is that buying any sort of gaming device in 2019 is better than any option in 2025. I’m using 2019 because that was the year I built my PC for $1k total, and that holiday season I bought my PS4 - a slim model that came bundled with Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, and The Last of Us 2 all for $199.99. Either of those deals blow pretty much anything today out of the water.
I guess profits are up, the PS5 is selling well so far, and it looks like the Switch 2 is tentatively on place to be one of the better-selling units of all time. Maybe the average consumer just doesn’t care about the bang for their buck- they just want the new shiny thing.
Fixed my comment
Astro Bot. I’d argue it is a system seller. It’s as wonderful as Mario Odyssey was for the Switch 1, one of the greatest platforming adventure games I’ve ever played, has a breathtaking soundtrack, gorgeous visuals and art style, incredible dynamic controls especially with the PS5 haptics, and a top 10 game for me. I had so much fun playing both Astro Bot (paid) and Astro Bot’s Play Room (free game). This absolutely deserved game of the year, and I’m happy it won. Asobo (developer) showed their full passion and love for gaming in this gem, and to play it is well worth the price of a PS5 in my opinion. It’s that good. And I’ve been a PC and Nintendo gamer for a long time.
I hope it’ll come to PC one day so that others can experience it. PC won’t have the tantalising PS5 haptics that immerse you into the game (the incredible adaptive triggers as you’re climbing, as an example, or walking through grass in that game and feeling the gentle scintillating haptics in the controller), but regardless, it’s a magnificent game that I want everyone to experience. I can’t praise Astro Bot enough, it’s such a gem.
It will if you have a PS5 controller. They don’t just work on PS5.
Wow thanks! Didn’t know that. I remember reading about it when it first came out and gamers didn’t have much compatibility and could only get standard vibration with Steam input, probably around when the console first came out. I now see there’s full support, and while most devs can use Steam input, there’s a new DSX version for PS5 that claims to support adaptive trigger haptics on Windows. I game on my PC with KBM and an Xbox Series controller though. I don’t know how well PS5 haptics will work on my Linux PC though.
The only one I know some people have is Switch2 from my friend group. And its mostly mario kart. They stopped playing after a bit so it will be interesting to see what will occur there.
Overall you dont buy the system for the system, usually you buy it for hte games. And like you said…if the games are not there (PS5 games vs say steam/pc) then people are not incentivized to get it.
There’s a good chance I won’t be buying into the next console gen. Too damned expensive now for a walled garden. PC costs more up front, but there are much more affordable options for playing games on them.
Already skipping the Switch 2. Every time there was announcement I was like:
Same. Waiting for Metroid Prime 4 to release so I can play it on my hacked Switch, then it’ll be no more new Nintendo games until/unless there’s a viable Switch 2 emulator someday.
probably won’t be that long, honestly. But if it is, I’m fine to wait too.
The issue won’t be the tech, since it’s out of date, but defeating whatever security Nintendo baked in as well as managing to avoid their army of lawyers. There is certainly a lot of motivation for hackers to get one up and running, since their games are highly desirable and they’re a pretty hated company by the kinds of game preservationist types that would usually put in the work of making an emulator. I’m figuring it’ll be a while, but if not, great!
haven’t they already been?
lol only in the US bud
The US is the biggest market for all consoles and most AAA games are made there as well. If they suffer there enough, it will affect users of them everywhere eventually.
Yeah it literally wont be the biggest market anymore because of tariffs, the end