If consoles and GPUs are priced out of reach for years, the market won't simply wait for them to come back – it'll re-centre around the devices people already have

Right about now is the moment when the console business should be getting one hell of a second wind. Six years deep into a hardware generation, with probably the most anticipated video game launch of all time just a few weeks out, this should be when the platform holders make hay, extending those mature install bases out into ever-wider audiences as fence-sitters finally pick up the hardware they've been holding out on for years.

Instead, even as a flurry of shortages for the seemingly supply-constrained PS5 Pro drives prices up into scalper territory, the overall picture from market data looks genuinely grim. Circana's latest figures show Xbox hardware unit sales for the year through August down 33%, sitting at an all-time low. PlayStation is down 25%, its weakest showing since 2013 – a nadir it reached on the eve of PS4's launch, with the market holding out for the new system.

The culprit isn't a mystery. The average PlayStation sold this year has cost a consumer $597; recall that the digital edition of the console cost $399 at launch in 2020. Nobody seems to expect any improvement next year – 2028 is the year when most analysts pin some cautious optimism for a return to a semblance of normality. That's when Circana's Mat Piscatella said he's hoping prices will stabilise, and when S&P Global's forecast suggests that global console sales might start to recover .

Source link