Soundwave said:
Well that's an easy one ... game hardware prices don't go down the same way any more because advanced node processes aren't going down in price. In the past, no one really needed high end nodes day 1 other than some gamers for game consoles/gaming GPUs and that was a small audience overall. Today, AI spend is bigger than some entire large countries' GDP, and then on top of that you have the massive smartphone business with Apple doubling down on having to have the top design node every year ... this has sent process node prices through the roof. The modern nodes are at such a small size (8nm to 6nm to 5nm, etc. etc.) too that the complexity of mass producing those chips has just stayed high. If you thought companies' were going to eat significant tariff costs on top of that, you were being naïve anyway. That was never going to happen. Tariffs are a tax the consumer pays largely. Plain and simple. |
Technology was always developing in any point of story, there is nothing different now, PS5 production price has gone down too, we know that, as Sony started making profit on it after some time it released.
What is happening nowdays is just companies realising they can squeeze more money out of people because they are all doing it and there is very few options, and that is becoming a lot easier for people to see.
The pandemic brought shortages, and what happened with low supply and high demand? Scams and scalping. The PS5 was being sold at $800 or higher by scalpers and that was actually working. Soon we moved from $800 top end GPUs to $2000 ones in just a few years. Because people are paying for them.
What happened when AMD finally started becoming relevant against Intel because Intel was so far ahead they didn't care trying? AMD became "the good guys" with cheaper and good power for the buck products, and when they were up high they started charging the "Intel price" as well, because people liked them and why not charge the "Intel price" if people paid that to Intel?
That was already happening with smartphones before, with Apple and Samsung starting chasing the "Apple price", but the pandemic completely messed up with people conception that they actually have the power over the companies and not the other way around.
People became victims of their own consume habits during the pandemic because people were locked in and companies made sure to take this opportunity to get as much from them as possible.
Now it's normal to accept being screwed over, so the backslash is way softer, non existent and they are actually even being defended by some people.
As long as they can keep squeezing you dry, they will.
People were not happy with the $70 and now $80 new game prices, but they can take way, way, way more from people, and they will, for example, the one I'm inserted in, here in Brazil. Buying a new game at full price here has the impact of buying a game that costs $400 in the USA.
Can you imagine people paying $400 for single games multiple times during the year? Maybe you think it's surreal and can never happen, but it does happen here, and will happen there as well if it is allowed. It is already happening with other stuff, actually, ask a 70 years old person what they think buying a house for $600K while making $60K a year.
