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[Magic-DEI-Hire]

Truly hilarious. Half expecting a side eye emoji response from Sarah Bond

 

[simpatico]

Another price hike has to be coming later this year or early next year, then. Given what they are saying. And with all this, many on GAF and Twitter still think these increased console costs are due to greed.

Yeah the response to those announcements is predictable. I think the big 3 all have another hike already planned and dated internally. Nintendo even hinted as much in their announcement. I think Valve's larger hike was an attempt to kill it one shot, instead of rolling out another a quarter or two down the road.

The next gen console price speculation threads are similarly unrealistic.

The problem is that the longer this goes on, and the more committed to future DC expansion the big tech companies are, the worse prices will get in the near term. You can't setup a new fab overnight and the manufacturers have stated they're not interested in oversupply. If the forecasts hold true all of next year and into 2028, coupled with the cost of energy inflation, it's not only the shortage but also general inflation that will take hold.

We are seeing the cumulative effects of instability showing up in pricing. It's impossible to plan accurately in an environment like this. It's a major reason why I don't see a bright future for Xbox unless Microsoft completely abandons near-term profitability or there is some black swan mega hit exclusive comes along to save them. Xbox needs a Halo more than ever.

We're finding out that RAM, just like diesel, is required to produce most products and raises the cost for everything, which then drives up the cost of RAM again.

I'm sure Sony and Xbox had a lot of internal momentum on their next gen console that they don't want to couch, but I don't see a need for a new console gen until 2030 anyways. Switch 2 isn't putting pressure on PS5 XSX on a technical front to hurry up and evolve. Steam Machine isn't either. Maybe Xbox releases a Series Z / Pro or something. Maybe Sony does a real PS5 Slim overhaul for the entry level or something to generate a little new interest.

Launching a sensitive economic biome like a console under these conditions when nothing in the world of tech demands it is crazy. I know those teams don't want to all of a sudden pump the brakes and probably reduce in size, but it's the right move for the brand imo.

 

[mckmas8808]

We're finding out that RAM, just like diesel, is required to produce most products and raises the cost for everything, which then drives up the cost of RAM again.

I'm sure Sony and Xbox had a lot of internal momentum on their next gen console that they don't want to couch, but I don't see a need for a new console gen until 2030 anyways. Switch 2 isn't putting pressure on PS5 XSX on a technical front to hurry up and evolve. Steam Machine isn't either. Maybe Xbox releases a Series Z / Pro or something. Maybe Sony does a real PS5 Slim overhaul for the entry level or something to generate a little new interest.

Launching a sensitive economic biome like a console under these conditions when nothing in the world of tech demands it is crazy. I know those teams don't want to all of a sudden pump the brakes and probably reduce in size, but it's the right move for the brand imo.

I'm sure the gaming execs know what you said here is right. But how much money would they have to eat to do it?

 

[simpatico]

I'm sure the gaming execs know what you said here is right. But how much money would they have to eat to do it?

Maybe we're having a standoff, wild west style between Sony and MS. Neither of them want to launch but have to be ready to if they can confirm the other one is going to. They need to have some kind of summit and hammer out a treaty to get through this period.

 

[mckmas8808]

Maybe we're having a standoff, wild west style between Sony and MS. Neither of them want to launch but have to be ready to if they can confirm the other one is going to. They need to have some kind of summit and hammer out a treaty to get through this period.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Yeah the response to those announcements is predictable. I think the big 3 all have another hike already planned and dated internally. Nintendo even hinted as much in their announcement. I think Valve's larger hike was an attempt to kill it one shot, instead of rolling out another a quarter or two down the road.

The next gen console price speculation threads are similarly unrealistic.


We're finding out that RAM, just like diesel, is required to produce most products and raises the cost for everything, which then drives up the cost of RAM again.

I'm sure Sony and Xbox had a lot of internal momentum on their next gen console that they don't want to couch, but I don't see a need for a new console gen until 2030 anyways. Switch 2 isn't putting pressure on PS5 XSX on a technical front to hurry up and evolve. Steam Machine isn't either. Maybe Xbox releases a Series Z / Pro or something. Maybe Sony does a real PS5 Slim overhaul for the entry level or something to generate a little new interest.

Launching a sensitive economic biome like a console under these conditions when nothing in the world of tech demands it is crazy. I know those teams don't want to all of a sudden pump the brakes and probably reduce in size, but it's the right move for the brand imo.

I agree, and personally don't think we need a rush to next gen. Xbox is the only one who really wants to push at this point, and they probably will. Will the new gen save them, or doom them? My gut tells me the latter. Nintendo is almost perfectly positioned given they're using old tech less impacted by cost increases for new nodes, and they are already making good headway moving their userbase to Switch 2 where as MS and Sony will be starting from scratch at a critically bad time economically.

The saving grace of these companies will be cross gen, and that risk mitigation is exactly why we have cross gen releases.

 

[Mr. PlayStation]

Truly hilarious. Half expecting a side eye emoji response from Sarah Bond

Would be diabolical if Phil retweeted the popcorn tweet from Shawn

 

[nick776]

OEMs releasing in addition to first party. Just like Microsoft Surface. This has always been the goal with Magnus. There is no indication yet that the first party device is being cancelled

I see.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Maybe we're having a standoff, wild west style between Sony and MS. Neither of them want to launch but have to be ready to if they can confirm the other one is going to. They need to have some kind of summit and hammer out a treaty to get through this period.

Nah, it's way more fun if one can surprise the other in figuring out some sort of cost-saving scenario that screws the other over.

 

[MacReady13]

Once again, apart from the less than 1%, who in the fuck is asking for super powerful consoles? Switch and Switch 2 have shown that power is not what the VAST majority give a flying fuck about! Keep costs down by making lower powered consoles. Leave the power hunger to the PC market. We are losing focus on what consoles are here for as opposed to buying a PC...

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Once again, apart from the less than 1%, who in the fuck is asking for super powerful consoles? Switch and Switch 2 have shown that power is not what the VAST majority give a flying fuck about! Keep costs down by making lower powered consoles. Leave the power hunger to the PC market. We are losing focus on what consoles are here for as opposed to buying a PC...

Nintendo releases awesome games that aren't available on PC, though. I think that makes the hardware race stuff less of a thing for them. I get wanting to win the power battle for Sony and Microsoft, but a balance of performance and price is most key for them.

 

[PauloRoberto]

Would be diabolical if Phil retweeted the popcorn tweet from Shawn

Phil would never do that (not because he's a gentleman, but that could derail his golden parachute...)

 

[Moses85]

 

[MacReady13]

Nintendo releases awesome games that aren't available on PC, though. I think that makes the hardware race stuff less of a thing for them. I get wanting to win the power battle for Sony and Microsoft, but a balance of performance and price is most key for them.

I can only speak on behalf of the people I know who have a Switch/2, they don't buy it for Nintendo games, they buy it cause it's portable and can be played at home AND it's the cheapest of the 3 consoles and they can play the vast majority of games on there. The fact you can play all the Capcom games on Switch 2 says heaps about what I am trying to convey here. Most don't give a fuck that these games don't hit a constant 60 fps at 4k upscaled visuals. No one for the most part really cares about this stuff apart from us...

 

[WoJ]

The layoffs prior to the previous layoffs were performance related. Just as "crazy" to assume the people being laid off here are "useless people".

That's fair. I guess when I look at Microsoft and what remains from the Spencer era it seems like there was just a ton of bloat and probably still it is. It doesn't shock me at all if they are cutting the fat. And when I say "useless people" I don't just mean DEI hires and the like. I'm also referring to redundant jobs that have just piled up as they grew their gaming division.

To be clear, I have zero faith Microsoft actually has a viable plan. I'm playing a bit of devils advocate.

Maybe they shouldn't spend so much money buying entire studios then?

I don't disagree with you on that.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I'd guess the M&A of ABK was a "careful what you wish" for situation. I'm sure the idea for the ABK acquisition was very similar to what Xbox did with ZeniMax and that was quickly tamped down by both regulators and Microsoft book keepers (you're spending how much?). Those intentions were as naive as thinking they added Donkey Kong to their catalogue when they purchased Rare.

Custom silicon like you described probably isn't the right move for anyone either and especially not the company with the smallest install base. Development is already expensive enough, multiplatform is a necessity for most games, and often cross generation compatibility as well. Going that route with Microsoft's other decisions would have led to even more games skipping the platform. It also doesn't solve the storage/memory problem everyone is facing today.

True that if the custom silicon was specifically for gaming like Xbox hardware, it wouldn't be worth the R&D. But I guess the idea there is, that it can easily be repurposed to other devices. You know, similar to the rumors of what the Project Helix silicon will be serving when (or if, at this case) it ever comes out. Something that's granular, modular, and usable in general consumer computers and server-side blades alongside a console.

At that type of scale, the R&D & NRE costs pay for themselves, and MS technically have the business channels to justify it. It's also a long-term play; they have to prepare for a future where x86 just isn't around anymore or reaches an evolutionary dead-end. Rather than scrambling in the aftermath, do what companies like Motorola did when the 68K reached its inevitable end & have a replacement (PowerPC, ColdFire in their case) ready when the time is right for a shift. In many ways that's what Nvidia are trying to do, so I don't see why MS wouldn't be considering it too.

ABK as an acquisition was completely unnecessary for the heath of Xbox console hardware, but that's in the past now. What's done is done. This is MS now trying to clean up a mess completely of their own doing and their operating with a half-sunk boat & an iceberg straight ahead. Whether they can do everything needed to turn the ship and just narrowly avoid crashing head-first into that iceberg is going to be very interesting to see, and we should start seeing some answers as to if they have the capability for it over this 100-day "reset" period.

 

[MrMPFR]

Asha's comment was almost certainly cloud gaming related, she said "radical new business model later this year" so it can't be new hardware.

I hope this doesn't mean no HW for future Xcloud. Is AT0 cancelled outside proviz?