This is the 2nd time they raised the price of Xbox consoles this year. You can guess why.
Xbox Series S 512 increased to $399.99 from $379.99
Xbox Series S 1TB increased to $449.99 from $429.99
Xbox Series X Digital increased to $599.99 from $549.99
Xbox Series X increased to $649.99 from $599.99
Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition increased to $799.99 from $729.99
Me: Always bought consoles when prices started going down
Console manufacturers: We choose to leave this market untapped this time.
The things that used to allow for them to do that aren’t happening this time around. We’re getting diminishing returns on processor architecture improvements compared to a few decades ago. Also, this one in particular is only in the US, so…this one is tariffs.
Processor architecture was always the same for console refreshes into cheaper slim models. It’s the massive slowdown of manufacturing improvements or nodes that is preventing price cuts. Processor architecture only affects new generations of consoles and premium versions like ps5 pro.
I did not mean to imply that the architecture changed in PS2 slim compared to the original PS2, only that were able to make better, cheaper, cooler, smaller versions of that same architecture.
It’s not console makers. It’s Trump.
Trump certainly isn’t helping, but it’s a number of factors put together. Moore’s Law is slowing, and one effect of that is that manufacturing existing tech isn’t getting cheaper either.
Don’t worry, they are getting relatively cheaper as inflation is a problem. Unfortunately they are also getting more expensive as wages aren’t keeping up with inflation.
Plus tariffs. Plus moores law ended. Plus profiteering. Plus dwindling competition. Plus entry to market costs are too high. Thank you gods for the steam deck. It should correct a lot of those problems. Especially if the platform becomes an os and not just a product.
TBH, with the death of Moore’s law we might see competition shoot back up in a few years as smaller players get a chance to catch up
And as processing doesn’t keep increasing, perhaps coding will have to become more efficient so older or cheaper devices will also be useful.
Currently there is little incentive toake code efficient if speed will double anyway over time.
This is unlikely to happen with current rules. You would likely need to radically change copyright and patent laws for a fast-moving sector like semiconductors to create real competition.
Semiconductor performance will continue to improve and the baseline will always be the most modern CPUs and GPUs (even if prices continue to rise).