Apparently some lawsuits have started on Sony’s potential price-fixing of all games on their platform since they’re now the only retailer. Before anyone gets excited, these are probably going nowhere, but it’s neat that something is happening. The idea seems similar to the Epic vs Apple/Google lawsuits.
All resistance is futile, unless (the vast majority of) people will not buy it at all. But they, as usual, will do that anyway, no matter what.
Most people seem to not see the longterm implications of things or just don’t understand or care.
The console market has ceded market share to PC over the past few decades specifically because a growing portion of the market sees that it’s cheaper over time. Everyone knows about Steam sales being better than the equivalent on consoles, whether they know it’s because of increased market competition or not. More and more people have shown that they’re doing the math on subscriptions to play online and realizing that it’s not a good deal. When you cut out the physical market and its own methods of keeping purchase prices down, more people still will do the math and decide not to engage.
The actual data does not support your conclusion.
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2020/11/gaming-games-consels-xbox-play-station-fun/
Even in that chart it does. In 2003 (Steam rolls out for the first time), the blue PC portion of the chart is clearly smaller than the green console portion. In 2020, at the end of that graph, PC is bigger than all consoles combined. That’s not shared equally, and there are outliers aplenty, like League of Legends probably making a disproportionate amount of money compared to the rest of PC for several years, but we’ve seen traditional console publishers like Ubisoft and Capcom show that PC is now more often than not the lead platform. In 2011, there had to be a petition to bring Dark Souls to PC when it wasn’t even considered before, and then about 10 years later, Elden Ring on PC outsold both PlayStation versions combined.
It’s very clear that PC and Console have remained relatively flat and comparable, while Mobile eats BOTH their lunch. PC has not experienced the runaway capture your intentionally vague wording implies it has…
From 2006 to 2026:
I readily acknowledge mobile numbers have risen fast across the board, but I think a lot of people are wrong about it being quickly comparable or “taken” from console sales. They’re just not as convertible as industry pundits might claim.
The only thing I am challenging is your claim that console has ceded market share to PC.
“Market share” has a defined meaning. Revenue for console and PC have both increased, one more than the other, but neither have gained any market share.
Maybe you just used the wrong metric to illustrate your point?
I can’t help what you infer from what I said, but I didn’t say runaway. I said it’s been ceding ground over decades, which it has. For another thing that’s not captured in that broad graph, something like half of all playtime on consoles is only a few of the biggest live service games, which does skew things like dollars earned for those platforms while not reflecting the situation for the likes of companies that are putting out new video games every couple of years. No surprise that subscriptions haven’t affected playing Fortnite on PS5, because free to play games don’t require that subscription fee like Elden Ring does.
Again…
From 2006 to 2026:
PC isn’t “cannibalizing” shit… They are both losing to Mobile.
You can’t just ignore data that doesn’t agree with your argument…
You put “cannibalize” in quotes as though I said it. I did not. Please don’t invent an argument that I didn’t make.
That statement is untrue; both have lost market share to mobile.
Fair points… Guess we will see when the new PS/Xbox hit the market. I hope you’re right…
There are an estimated 3,600,000,000 active video game players worldwide…
Why does it never occur to anyone in these threads that YOU might just be an insignificant but vocal minority?
That was my point. Just revisit this thread in 10yrs and see.
And see what, that no one has physical media and no one cares?
Yes. That another consumer - right got slashed completely. The poor are forced to just rent houses, apts, cars, appliances and even fucking books and games. I drown in money and see a big cultural problem here, I don’t know why you don’t care. Because YOU can afford it? Or YOU don’t care about owning stuff you paid money for?
Because >20,000 children have died in Gaza since 2023 as a direct result of the same exploitative capitalism, and selective outrage over video games seems ignorant, performative, and wasteful of my energy…
Because every moment spent advocating for the “rights” of 1st world consumers is an affront to millions of lives lost so you have the comfort and privilege required to care about something so fucking stupid and selfish…
Every day people die due to capitalism. Why should i explicitly care for some islamic state in some remote region i don’t remotely care about? In a playstation-thread in a community about gaming?
Big words, but what have you done lately to help people less fortunate than yourself? I’m a non-exploiting capitalist. Every employee of mine had excellent double-above-average salary, a come-and-go-as-you-please-work-ethics, shares in the company and free food and drinks. I donate tons of money to people (no stupid organizations), i work for free in a shelter and i don’t buy shit noone needs to impress people i don’t like. Scale doesn’t matter btw, one can help even being piss-poor. If everyone else, and especially some billionaires, would too, everything would be nicer. But we don’t.
So please spare me the dying children (as if the adults wouldn’t matter) someplace. Children here are dying too, and way too many not by natural causes. Homo homini lupus est.
Did you read that term in a fairytale? 😂
Is your business structured as a worker cooperative or are you the owner?
If you take home a single penny more than the other people in your company, you are an exploitative capitalist and a labor thief. Take your market fundamentalist virtue signaling somewhere else…
Your “gotcha” reply just killed any credibility you might have argued on this topic. You are no better than the companies you’re criticizing, you’re just less successful at it.
I don’t need to advertise my contributions to strangers on the internet, and rationalize my behavior to satisfy a guilty conscience… The people in my community know what value I add.
Do better.
What i thought…big words from behind a keyboard. And I surely don’t need a lecture from you about what capitalism is. Using a phone or a computer, using a car and whatnot and probably working somewhere while being in it and exploiting the poor chinese who made your devices. Stop partaking in it or change something. Call me when you made it, i’d happily give up my wealth to live in a better society.
yes i am, that was the point. Was not so hard to grasp.
Anyhow, I see where I am at now and hence withdraw from this “conversation”
Or they completely understand and are ok with it.
Which surely will be the minority. I don’t care either as I don’t like consoles. But I like customer rights.
Nah most people understand how digital stuff works compared to physical, since every other media format has already gone through this transition. People know that songs and movies get removed from streaming services and digital stores. People know how it works on steam and mobiles, which have been digital only for years.
Obviously. But steam already killed the used game-market many moons ago. And physical games. I boycotted them for years when they launched, knowing how it would end. And here we are. Physical PC games totally eradicated. Gifting away games I’m done with to poorer people who like to game too? Gone. Buying a semi interesting game for half price used? Nope. All gone. And if you buy a physical box, you get a key and a disc with an outdated installer at best.
Remember doom shareware?
But even I caved in and spend 100k on steam games I will never own. At least they offer a great deal of service around it. As long as gaben lives…
Movies and series I exclusively pirate. Music bandcamp, as I can still own the shit I buy.
OK cool, so you see how it’s probably actually the majority that understands the physical/digital trade-off, and they’re ok with it.
There also are many many people doing things that have bad outcomes and are fine with it, because they just don’t see the implications. I mean, half of the usa voted for trump.
Or again, they are well aware of the implications and are fine with it.
Half the USA voted for a guy with dementia in 2020.
The USA often shows their general high education in those things. And when should they inform a real opinion about anything when they have to juggle 3 jobs to survive? Which totally is intended.
But “being fine with it” and REALLY understanding the long-term implications of whatever they do, are two kinda different things.
I don’t even know why it pisses me off. I rent nothing and own what I wanna own/have. But most people can’t. The vast majority of this silly planet is poor and will soon own absolutely nothing except maybe a T-shirt. Not even a fucking console game.