As sales results for November show a sharp decline in demand for the PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox, a reader worries that consoles are quickly becoming obsolete.
For a long while now I’ve worried that consoles are dying as a concept. I feel this started with the PS4 Pro, which ruined one of the key benefits of a console: that they’re all the same and you know that every game is being designed to run exactly the same on everyone’s machine. Suddenly though there are now deluxe versions of the consoles, that you can never be sure developers aren’t purposefully designing their games for.
If I wanted a PC, which I don’t, I would put up with that sort of issue, but the whole point is that a console is a fixed system that a developer must try to get the most out of. If you can shrug your shoulders and say it runs better on the Pro version, then all that is gone.
But it’s not just that. Both Sony and Microsoft now release all or most of their games on PC, at least eventually, which reduces the need to get a console at all. Sales are down but prices are up, which seems like the perfect recipe for disaster, and now we find out that sales have sunk to a 30 year low in the US and even in the UK.
Even with the sinking feeling I’ve had, I still read that story with some shock. The worst sales for 30 years? And the Xbox had its worst November ever, including the original console? And overall Nintendo sales were down, even with the Switch 2? It doesn’t seem possible things could be that bad but there we have it, and in two different countries as well.
The big problem with the November sales seems to be price. The PlayStation 5 was cheap during Black Friday, so that did not so bad, but the Switch 2 is very expensive for a Nintendo console. I’m not surprised that this Nex Playground device was able to sneak in there and outsell them both, by being what people actually want: a simple, easy-to-use toy that’s cheap and has plenty of family friendly games.
It seems Nintendo has completely forgotten that its modern success started with the Wii, which had all those things. But the Switch 2 doesn’t have any of them except the games, and they’re all ultra expensive, compared to just a cheap subscription.
There’s a very obvious danger here, that consoles are going to quickly become obsolete and that you’ll have only the PC and novelty devices like the Nex, and those PC portables that seem to breed like rabbits. It only takes one failed generation for a console maker to be in danger, as Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft all know.
But if all three of them fail at once that could be it for consoles in general. If, as we think, the next generation machines are going to be super expensive I feel there’s a very good chance that people will just say no and turn their backs on them. The hardcore won’t, but the hardcore are not the majority, or anything close to it.
We already have a problem that younger kids are not growing up playing traditional games or if they are it’s just the same three or four live service games. By raising prices and reducing the variety of games that are put out, all that’s happening is that console gaming Is being made to look even more undesirable and old-fashioned.
The Xbox is already dead as a hardware format and a super expensive PlayStation 6 is not going to do any better, I don’t feel. The Switch 2 sold well at first, but its November results were just as bad as Sony’s. Things really couldn’t be any worse.
This feels like the beginning of the end and just like the problems around budgets and how long it takes to make new games, I feel like companies are sticking their heads in the sand and doing absolutely nothing about it.
By reader Ansel
Don’t miss Gaming news! Add us as a Preferred Source
As a loyal GameCentral reader, we want to make sure you never miss our articles when searching for gaming stories. We have all the latest video games news, reviews, previews, and interviews, with a vibrant community of highly engaged readers.
Click here and tick Metro.co.uk to ensure you see stories from us first in Google Search.
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.