| Cerebralbore101 said: I just want to take this opportunity to point out something. When console sales tank in the next few years every analyst will say "Oh but the console market has been shrinking since 2005 so this is no surprise". This is similar to how "smartphones killed handhelds". But in reality, just like handhelds, its the companies sabotaging their own products that will kill the market. The 3DS was 40% more expensive at launch than the DS when factoring in inflation. It also launched with no exclusives outside of Ocarina of Time remake. Vita was a horrible joke and also insanely expensive. People stopped buying handhelds not because smartphones killed the market but because both the 3DS and Vita were way overpriced. If 3DS had launched with a 2DS XL model and Poke'mon as a launch year game it would have made the 3DS hit 100 million lifetime easily. |
Yeah I see a lot of "oh young people don't care about consoles any more, they just play F2P games on their phone/PC" but this isn't that surprising when you consider that young people are being hit the hardest by the cost of living crisis and consoles and their games just keep getting more and more expensive.
Gen Z are cutting back on buying PS5s or full price games cos they increasingly just can't afford it with rampant inflation, stagnant wages, rent taking up most of their income, and the the job market being a mess.
They're effectively being priced out of the console space, just like they've been priced out of housing.
Last edited by curl-6 - on 22 August 2025
