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Rising hardware prices have been worrying gamers for months. First Microsoft and Sony announced price increases, and then further forecasts suggested even pricier devices. Now former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has weighed in. He believes the current situation could mean the definitive end to cheap consoles. It's all due to rising production costs and record-high memory prices.
PlayStation 5 may never get cheaper
Shawn Layden, the former president of PlayStation Worldwide Studios, believes players should not expect significant price cuts for the PlayStation 5. He says the current crisis involving RAM and memory chips has completely changed the console market. In previous generations it was standard to gradually lower hardware prices a few years after launch. Consoles typically launched around $399 and later dropped to as low as $199. That's when sales picked up the most. According to Layden, that scenario won't repeat in the current generation. Rising production costs mean manufacturers have no room to offer big discounts. As a result, the PlayStation 5 could remain an expensive device until the end of its life cycle. A similar situation could affect future consoles as well. This means the end of the sales model gamers have been used to for many years. More and more experts share similar forecasts.
The next generation could be even more expensive
The problems aren’t limited to PlayStation. In recent months Microsoft has also raised the prices of its consoles, and memory manufacturers are signing multi-year deals that keep prices at their current level. That makes the prospect of cheaper hardware increasingly unlikely. Analysts predict the next generation of consoles could cost around $1,000. Such forecasts are already being made in relation to PlayStation 6 and the new Xbox. Of course, for now these are only predictions and no manufacturer has revealed official prices for future devices. Still, more and more signs point to the era of $399 consoles coming to an end. For many gamers, this could mean using their current hardware longer or upgrading to new generations less often. Everything suggests the gaming industry is entering a completely new era when it comes to hardware prices.
The former head of PlayStation believes the PS5 may never again see major price cuts. Rising manufacturing costs mean cheap consoles are becoming a thing of the past, and future generations could be even more expensive.
source: tech4gamers
