Ars analysis shows missing price cuts are costing console consumers hundreds of dollars.
  • TwinTitans@lemmy.worldEnglish
    133·
    7 hours ago

    Are they? Because with inflation, I believe the PlayStation 5 is cheaper than the Xbox 360 was at launch.

    • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      8 hours ago

      They are overpriced if you dont only consider the number value but also consider how much disposable income people have. Disposable income these days is in the negatives.

    • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
      152·
      11 hours ago

      Article title is click bait. They are not referring to the starting price, but the fact that more recent consoles don’t drop in price within a year or two like the older ones did.

      Also, I disagree with the premise because modern consoles tend to start at a lower relative price which could mean they are more accurately guessing the market value up front or maybe the older ones were priced to gather as much income as fast as possible on the original release and the cost drop was to get rid of excess stock.

  • Kinglink@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    105·
    12 hours ago

    Are they overpriced? Or is computer hardware more expensive then ever?

    Back in the day the NES was NOT a top of the line computer, it was a solid piece of hardware, but easily could be destroyed by a PC.

    Now we want game systems that are on par with the highest level of computing hardware, and stay up to date for half a decade or more, but want to pay 300 dollars for it.

    Sorry no. If you want a Wii or a Wii U, or a switch when they first come out, that’s what you’ll get.

    Want something that keeps up with the newest computer? You’re going to be paying for something on par with the newest computer… 500 dollars seems like a lot, but consider what the hardware is, that makes sense to me

    • missingno@fedia.io
      4·
      11 hours ago

      The Neo Geo’s gimmick was that there were two systems, the Multi Video System arcade board and the Advanced Entertainment System home console. These were largely the same hardware, so the selling point was that in an era where most arcade -> home ports had to be substantially downgraded for consumer hardware, the AES let you play arcade-perfect versions of these games at home. Which meant it was expensive as hell because you were literally buying arcade hardware that was much more powerful than consumer products.