It’s more about the console’s lifecycle, rather than it remaining the ‘current generation’. They’re implying that they will continue to ‘support’ the PS5 for another 5 years, whatever they determine that to mean (likely just keeping the online store open, maybe also multiplayer servers, and whatever PlayStation Plus features ).
That makes more sense — and I bet they will, too. If they aren’t still supporting the PS4, they did for a while. PS2, also. PS3, I’m not so sure about, but that sounds like something Sony has done. A game will come out on Xbox, PlayStation, and the previous PlayStation.
PS5 and XSX are both still great for 1080p gaming, despite one claiming 8K (since removed) and the other (still) claiming 4K. I’ve heard the next generation will support 4K native, and this leap in performance will come with a leap in price. I’ve heard the Xbox will basically be a branded PC and run Steam titles (I think this is mostly hopium); if so, I wonder what PlayStation will do to compete. Besides continue to support the previous generation longer. Either way, they’re too expensive now; I can only imagine what the next ones will cost.
Assuming the AI bubble bursts before then, we might actually see somewhat reasonable pricing for next-gen consoles.
A major reason why prices have remained so inflated for so long post-COVID is because data centres have been sucking up every bit of silicon that TSMC has been able to pump out for both Nvidia and AMD.
But that would be honestly a very small upside, compared to what would likely be the Mother of All Stockmarket Crashes. The market cap of the Top 10 AI-related stocks is greater than the current US national debt, they aren’t in a position to be able to reasonably bail out those companies when it all eventually goes to shit, like they do in 2008.
The best way to think of them is as cousins; they are similar - but not exactly the same.
They focus more on higher VRAM and CUDA cores compared to GPUs, while forgoing 3d acceleration capabilities.
But they both come out of the same factories; so when the demand for AI cards is as high as it is now - and Nvidia can sell as many as it produces with a higher margin than GPUs, there is little incentive for them to produce more GPUs and sell them at a competitive price.
So when the AI bubble bursts, demand for AI cards will crater - and there will be no financial incentive to mass produce them in such high quantities. This frees up production capacity at the TSMC factories, incentivising production of lower margin products like GPUs.
Economics is largely a game of supply & demand; when supply outstrips demand, prices fall as sellers search for buyers. When demand outstrips supply prices go up as buyers search for sellers.
I don’t think it will — AI is just getting started, and I think it’s going to get a lot better in terms of what it can do and fooling more of us into thinking it’s real. I think it’s also going to pull more on the AI fence toward it than push them away, though those of us already firmly against it probably won’t budge much.
We’ve been talking about PlayStation, but specific to Xbox, Microsoft wants to bring Copilot to gaming, tapping into guides online (IGN and such) to get Copilot to be able to help you through a game, while you’re playing it. Like Clippy in Word… Copilot in Halo (or whatever). And it’s not going to be free. But we’ll also pay more for the Xbox that can do it, even if we aren’t paying for AI help. But I think Microsoft will try to justify the higher price of the next Xbox (hell, the Xbox handheld is $1000 to start) by getting out of software (game) exclusives, opening it up to Steam, and basically making branded gaming PCs. Yes it’s hopium when Xbox fanboys try to sell it as a sure thing, but, it makes sense. Xbox is porting its remaining exclusives over to PlayStation. But they show no signs of getting out of hardware, and opening up to Steam, especially if PlayStation doesn’t, makes an Xbox a sure sell with gamers, especially if it’s cheaper than building a gaming PC and they don’t want to mod. I don’t see a future for Xbox with neither exclusives nor third-party stores. And I don’t think anyone wants Sony to be the only “game” in town.
I’m not saying AI will go away, or not continue to improve - but we are very much at the tail end of the current mania phase, and we will see some market pullback as AI startups begin to go out of business when all of those lofty promises of AI fail to materialise.
Diminishing returns on ever increasing investment, circular investments based on speculative returns, these are all signs of the tail-end of a stock market bubble.
It’s more about the console’s lifecycle, rather than it remaining the ‘current generation’. They’re implying that they will continue to ‘support’ the PS5 for another 5 years, whatever they determine that to mean (likely just keeping the online store open, maybe also multiplayer servers, and whatever PlayStation Plus features ).
That makes more sense — and I bet they will, too. If they aren’t still supporting the PS4, they did for a while. PS2, also. PS3, I’m not so sure about, but that sounds like something Sony has done. A game will come out on Xbox, PlayStation, and the previous PlayStation.
PS5 and XSX are both still great for 1080p gaming, despite one claiming 8K (since removed) and the other (still) claiming 4K. I’ve heard the next generation will support 4K native, and this leap in performance will come with a leap in price. I’ve heard the Xbox will basically be a branded PC and run Steam titles (I think this is mostly hopium); if so, I wonder what PlayStation will do to compete. Besides continue to support the previous generation longer. Either way, they’re too expensive now; I can only imagine what the next ones will cost.
Assuming the AI bubble bursts before then, we might actually see somewhat reasonable pricing for next-gen consoles.
A major reason why prices have remained so inflated for so long post-COVID is because data centres have been sucking up every bit of silicon that TSMC has been able to pump out for both Nvidia and AMD.
But that would be honestly a very small upside, compared to what would likely be the Mother of All Stockmarket Crashes. The market cap of the Top 10 AI-related stocks is greater than the current US national debt, they aren’t in a position to be able to reasonably bail out those companies when it all eventually goes to shit, like they do in 2008.
arnt the chips used for AI not compatible for personal computers?
The best way to think of them is as cousins; they are similar - but not exactly the same.
They focus more on higher VRAM and CUDA cores compared to GPUs, while forgoing 3d acceleration capabilities.
But they both come out of the same factories; so when the demand for AI cards is as high as it is now - and Nvidia can sell as many as it produces with a higher margin than GPUs, there is little incentive for them to produce more GPUs and sell them at a competitive price.
So when the AI bubble bursts, demand for AI cards will crater - and there will be no financial incentive to mass produce them in such high quantities. This frees up production capacity at the TSMC factories, incentivising production of lower margin products like GPUs.
Economics is largely a game of supply & demand; when supply outstrips demand, prices fall as sellers search for buyers. When demand outstrips supply prices go up as buyers search for sellers.
I don’t think it will — AI is just getting started, and I think it’s going to get a lot better in terms of what it can do and fooling more of us into thinking it’s real. I think it’s also going to pull more on the AI fence toward it than push them away, though those of us already firmly against it probably won’t budge much.
We’ve been talking about PlayStation, but specific to Xbox, Microsoft wants to bring Copilot to gaming, tapping into guides online (IGN and such) to get Copilot to be able to help you through a game, while you’re playing it. Like Clippy in Word… Copilot in Halo (or whatever). And it’s not going to be free. But we’ll also pay more for the Xbox that can do it, even if we aren’t paying for AI help. But I think Microsoft will try to justify the higher price of the next Xbox (hell, the Xbox handheld is $1000 to start) by getting out of software (game) exclusives, opening it up to Steam, and basically making branded gaming PCs. Yes it’s hopium when Xbox fanboys try to sell it as a sure thing, but, it makes sense. Xbox is porting its remaining exclusives over to PlayStation. But they show no signs of getting out of hardware, and opening up to Steam, especially if PlayStation doesn’t, makes an Xbox a sure sell with gamers, especially if it’s cheaper than building a gaming PC and they don’t want to mod. I don’t see a future for Xbox with neither exclusives nor third-party stores. And I don’t think anyone wants Sony to be the only “game” in town.
I’m not saying AI will go away, or not continue to improve - but we are very much at the tail end of the current mania phase, and we will see some market pullback as AI startups begin to go out of business when all of those lofty promises of AI fail to materialise.
Diminishing returns on ever increasing investment, circular investments based on speculative returns, these are all signs of the tail-end of a stock market bubble.