Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Reduce comes first for a reason.
You do not need a PS5. You don’t need a new console - if you need a console at all.
A okay gaming PC withis not cheap. To some people, console is the only way
Just buy used PS5.
What is wrong with ps4 or ps3? Are the games not good because they are aged?
I do most of my gaming on ps1 and wii, and a bit on PC.
My PC is not a “gaming” PC. I play games on it. I have access to a nearly 50-year library of games. Just because I don’t have the newest and shiniest doesn’t mean I don’t have tons of fun games available. And I said ‘if you need a console at all’. If you are determined to play video games and you don’t want them on a PC, phone, or tablet, then fine. There are thrift stores, there’s eBay (though that’s loaded with scalpers and scum even more than the thrift grifters), there are many ways to buy a used console. But I also stand by the thought that if what you have is working and being fun, keep using it. If the corporations have made it not fun, either go to older hardware they can’t do that to, or get homebrew set up.
Don’t just keep it on a shelf “in case”. Don’t store it. And for the love of anything good, don’t just discard it.
Reduce. If you think you’ve reduced “enough”, find something else to reduce.
As demand increases so will their price too.
“You don’t need a new PS4-game player. Your PS4 is fine enough as-is!”
A cheap SSD upgradeand a PS4 plays PS4 games the same way a PS5 does.
I mean, there’s that too.
IN MY DAY WE HAD A STICK AND A HOOP AND WE WERE HAPPY
Getting into that case also gets into pedagogical theory, because giving kids primarily analog entertainment compared to digital seems to be beneficial. I was talking about those of us adults who are already doomed. We have computers. We already have machines. We don’t need the new one.
I’m my day that wasn’t far from the truth. We don’t need quality games machines but they’re a very nice luxury.
Quality is exactly what we need in games machines.
Not meaningless iteration and oppressive corporate greed. The 2600 was a quality machine - you can still find working VCS consoles in the wild - and when they fail, it’s usually something that can be fixed by the owner of the console. It doesn’t die because software tells it to die, or because of a known manufacturing fault where a simple fix was ignored because it wouldn’t have been profitable. The same can (mostly) be said of NES, SMS, MD/Genesis, SNES, and even TG16/PC Engine.
Beyond that, I expect that 32-bit machines and forward should still work, even if disk rot is affecting the ones that weren’t cartridge based.
“When I joined the Corps, we didn’t have any fancy-shmancy tanks. We had sticks! Two sticks, and a rock for the whole platoon - and we had to share the rock!”
— Sgt Johnson, Halo 2
I got one Nintendo switch 2 before the price bump. I better get the other I was going to get before that gets bumped too I guess
I ended up getting a Switch 2 I didn’t even order because someone at Amazon fucked up. I had just ordered some storage bins; one of them had a Switch 2 in it lol
Back in my day console prices would go down after being on the market for a few years
Five years… in the OG days we’d be prepping for the next generation about now.
Then things got weird around the 2008 financial crash. :(
(US dates)
Atari 2600 - 1977
Atari 5200 - 1982
Atari 7800 - 1986
Atari Jaguar - 1993NES - 1985
SNES - 1990
N64 - 1996
Gamecube - 2001
Wii - 2006
Wii U - 2012
Switch - 2017
Switch 2 - 2025Sega Master System - 1986
Genesis - 1989
Sega CD - 1992
32X - 1994
Saturn - 1995
Dreamcast - 1999NEC Turbo Grafx 16 / CD - 1989
NEC Turbo Duo - 1993Playstation - 1995
PS2 - 2000
PS3 - 2006
PS4 - 2013
PS4 Pro - 2016
PS5 - 2020
PS5 Pro - 2024Xbox - 2001
Xbox 360 - 2005
Xbox One - 2013
Xbox One X - 2017
Xbox Series X - 2020I’ve owned 15 of the consoles listed. Doesn’t seem like I’ve been through that many of them!
24 for me and I still own most of them.
I feel like part of it was that the console revisions past 2008 aren’t as big of a deal as they were before. You also had publishers start producing games for multiple generations of consoles at the same time.
Games took way longer to make in the 7th gen and later, so 5 years for a console generation didn’t cut it anymore.
Sega even had an earlier console in 1983 called the SG-1000. It was only released in Japan though.
Back in my day, we elected scumbags who at least wanted to preserve stability and international trade relations so that at least a balance could be preserved long enough to nudge policy where people broadly wanted it.
Back in your day needless tarriffs weren’t a thing.
President Reagan decided Friday to impose punitive 100% tariffs on a wide variety of goods produced by Japanese electronic giants in retaliation for Tokyo’s failure to abide by the semiconductor trade agreement between the two nations.
In approving a recommendation Thursday by the Administration’s top economic officials, the White House decided to put the tariffs into effect about April 17, less than two weeks before Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone is scheduled to begin a visit to the United States aimed at easing trade frictions.
The tariffs will be targeted to bring in as much as $300 million and designed to punish such firms as NEC Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Oki Corp. by either pricing some of their goods out of the American market or by forcing them to accept substantial losses on U.S. sales.
So a specific tariff, on specific goods in a specific country, for a specific reason. Really not comparable.
Was that not a measured response to a failure to abide by an established agreement?
Depends on who is telling the story.
Japan / Korea were early instances of US industrial outsourcing. The consequences of the project was an economic boom during late 70s/early 80s in both countries, such that American politicians feared Japan and Korea would return to the world stage as independent regional powers. Reagan’s tariffs, the subsequent opening of Japanese import markets, and the further industrial outsourcing to China, the Philippines, and the rest of the South Pacific labor markets effectively clipped the wings of the Japanese/Korean wage laborer.
You could argue this was part of the “agreement” between Eastern Zaibatsu executives and Western investment banks. But I’d hardly call it a “measured response”. I certainly wouldn’t call it a policy that served the best interests of either Eastern or Western wage labor.
Node shrinks are not as impactful as they use to be, in that area at least.
Yeah but back then we weren’t winning™
Have you all said thank you yet for the tariffs?
✓Fuck around
✓Find out
Somehow I think this generation of consoles are going to be suffering a bit.
“Going to be”? I feel like this generation already failed at the starting line. I can’t name a single PS5 game I’d want to play that doesn’t already look and run better on my PC. The Switch 2 is running on several generations-old hardware so it’s already a non-starter. And Microsoft screwed up their naming convention so badly that I don’t even know what the latest Xbox is called.
Hell, this console generation is somehow already five years old, and I still don’t know anyone who actually owns one of these systems. Everyone I know is still using their PS4s, XBones, Switches, and gaming laptops with 10, 20, and 30 series Nvidia GPUs. Hell, I haven’t seen any hype for modern console gaming since the XBOX 360/PS3 era. No one cares about owning the latest and greatest gaming system anymore. Everyone’s happy with what they have.
I can’t name a single PS5 game I’d want to play that doesn’t already look and run better on my PC
The keyword here is “my”.
It’s not just the console generation that is suffering. PC gaming is dying too. Crypto dealer the first blow, now AI. I’m still running an RX580 that I bought for $180 back in 2019. I was planning on buying a 9700XT at launch this year. Still not a great value- an MSRP of $600. Adjusted for inflation that’s still ~2.6x the price and it’s not going to give me 2.6x the performance. But even then it was impossible to find a card for $600 - even months later the cheapest one on nowinstock is $700, and those are hard to find. That’s JUST the GPU - you still need another grand or more to build a decent PC around it. Even with this price increase, the base PS5 is $550.
I’m not trying to make this a console vs PC thing. They all suck right now. The only good values for gaming is on the fringes. The Steam Deck was an incredible value when it launched, and only looks better today. Other cheap, low-powered solutions like Chinese handhelds and android TV boxes loaded with pirated old ROM’s. Mini-PC’s that are good enough to handle 5-10 year old PC games… At 1080p or less with the settings turned down bit. Maybe an Xbox Series S might be a decent short-term value, especially if you are a person who loves game pass or just wants to play free games like Fortnight.
It’s looking bleak. Not just videogames but everything. Food, medicine, clothing, housing.
Then again, a cpu and gpu from 2018 still plays 90% of the Steam library so… more? Less? Relative.
The only one I know some people have is Switch2 from my friend group. And its mostly mario kart. They stopped playing after a bit so it will be interesting to see what will occur there.
Overall you dont buy the system for the system, usually you buy it for hte games. And like you said…if the games are not there (PS5 games vs say steam/pc) then people are not incentivized to get it.
Astro Bot. I’d argue it is a system seller. It’s as wonderful as Mario Odyssey was for the Switch 1, one of the greatest platforming adventure games I’ve ever played, has a breathtaking soundtrack, gorgeous visuals and art style, incredible dynamic controls especially with the PS5 haptics, and a top 10 game for me. I had so much fun playing both Astro Bot (paid) and Astro Bot’s Play Room (free game). This absolutely deserved game of the year, and I’m happy it won. Asobo (developer) showed their full passion and love for gaming in this gem, and to play it is well worth the price of a PS5 in my opinion. It’s that good. And I’ve been a PC and Nintendo gamer for a long time.
I hope it’ll come to PC one day so that others can experience it. PC won’t have the tantalising PS5 haptics that immerse you into the game (the incredible adaptive triggers as you’re climbing, as an example, or walking through grass in that game and feeling the gentle scintillating haptics in the controller), but regardless, it’s a magnificent game that I want everyone to experience. I can’t praise Astro Bot enough, it’s such a gem.
PC won’t have the tantalising PS5 haptics that immerse you into the game
It will if you have a PS5 controller. They don’t just work on PS5.
Wow thanks! Didn’t know that. I remember reading about it when it first came out and gamers didn’t have much compatibility and could only get standard vibration with Steam input, probably around when the console first came out. I now see there’s full support, and while most devs can use Steam input, there’s a new DSX version for PS5 that claims to support adaptive trigger haptics on Windows. I game on my PC with KBM and an Xbox Series controller though. I don’t know how well PS5 haptics will work on my Linux PC though.
haven’t they already been?
There’s a good chance I won’t be buying into the next console gen. Too damned expensive now for a walled garden. PC costs more up front, but there are much more affordable options for playing games on them.
Already skipping the Switch 2. Every time there was announcement I was like:
Same. Waiting for Metroid Prime 4 to release so I can play it on my hacked Switch, then it’ll be no more new Nintendo games until/unless there’s a viable Switch 2 emulator someday.
probably won’t be that long, honestly. But if it is, I’m fine to wait too.
The issue won’t be the tech, since it’s out of date, but defeating whatever security Nintendo baked in as well as managing to avoid their army of lawyers. There is certainly a lot of motivation for hackers to get one up and running, since their games are highly desirable and they’re a pretty hated company by the kinds of game preservationist types that would usually put in the work of making an emulator. I’m figuring it’ll be a while, but if not, great!
lol only in the US bud
The US is the biggest market for all consoles and most AAA games are made there as well. If they suffer there enough, it will affect users of them everywhere eventually.
They will sell fine everywhere except the US. I don’t even want a switch2 because the bullshit Nintendo did with the virtual carts. God it’s a fucking PITA to even play my first gen switches because I have to be sure both consoles are powered on and connected to the Internet to “activate” the cart that was active on the other.
They will sell fine everywhere except the US.
Nah, tariffs didn’t help, but there are other economic factors and trends here that have been slowly at work for a very long time.
FYI there is a fix for the virtual Cart thing.
- Go to User Settings.
- Scroll down and find Use Online License.
- Switch it to ON.
I just got a PS3 for free
And a PS4 BluRay exploit has just been released, so you can crack the whole thing by burning a BluRay (up to a certain software version).
Lots of legitimately obtained backup copies to play!
Is there a cfw yet or other homebrew? Or we just at the start and they’ve just found the door in so far?
There isn’t a CFW for PS4. But what we have is GoldHEN (which enables us to run decrypted games, also called fPKG’s) and various methods to run GoldHEN.
Up to firmware 9.00 (I believe) there is a browser exploit to run it, up to 11.00 you can also hack the console via PPP (pppwn) and up to 12.02 GoldHEN can be loaded with a BluRay you have burned before.
So you basically start the system and put it in a state where it accepts unsigned code. It’s very similar to PS3HEN. There’s also a method of hacking the console with some obscure Japanese games and one with a PS2 game. Some absolute madlads even made it possible to hack the PS4 with an LG Smart TV. 😆
The channel MODDED WARFARE always reports on those methods and makes tutorials, highly recommended.
I once traded someone my PS3 for his PS4.
I traded up, and he had two PS4s and no PS3 and he wanted one of each. It was a win-win.You lucky bastard! Good for you. 🤘
Definitely not getting in on this generation, then.
Well, that’s tariffs for you. Completely expected, though a ~10% bump on the PS5 doesn’t adjust for all the tariff increase IIRC.
Pretty sure this is due to the dollar weakening by 10%.
Pretty sure the dollar weakened by 10% over it being harder to trade with the US.
Both? Probably both.
Positive feedback from Trump trying to fix an economy he is beyond understanding.
That’s not a particularly realistic explanation
The USD index has weakened by 10% as a whole, but not relative to the JPY. It has held roughly steady against the yen for the past couple years, before which the yen had weakened significantly. USD to JPY is extremely high right now, compared to where it has been over the past 15 years
*capitalism for you.
the tariffs are part of the overall system which is designed to exploit folks a few rich owners can profit.
Then why did Sony also increase pricing in several other countries?
Damn shame, Sony. I’m lowering my buy price by $50.
Are you under the impression this is Sony trying to gouge you? It’s your idiot president and your trash country
You’re right. I can’t forget to factor him in.
It’s $100 less now. I’m taking a tariff on it. Final offer.
Say thank you.
Damn shame, Trump. I’m lowering my buy tax by $5.
Other countries got their price increase months ago. Ours was probably delayed so that they could tell how bad the damages of our idiot president would be.
Then why did so many other countries get an increase first?
remember when consoles got cheaper as they aged? …and eventually they’d hit that $99 sweet spot in the last few quarters of life? and used game stores were overstocked with older cheap used games…
That’s why all of the major players have been frothing at the mouth to get rid of discs
Ok. More reasons not to get one.
Pretty much all of tech will see this price bump because of Trump
Yup. Still more reasons to not buy anything.
I thought these increases were going to be as bad as Xbox by the looks of things. $50 for PlayStation is way better than I thought vs $100 for greedy Microsoft.
Part of an overall concerning trend, but as someone who decided to stop buying consoles years ago: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
