Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "MICROSOFT IS RAISING PRICES ON XBOX CONSOLES, CONTROLLERS, AND GAMES WORLDWIDE"

Starting point is 00:00:03 Now, of course, early in this episode, I talked about the effects that the tariffs would have on the gaming industry. And I broke it down from a totality standpoint, right? We went over hardware and consoles. We went over physical video games and media, even tabletop gaming. And I even got, this is not even a political podcast. And I got into the economic and consumer effects as a whole. As if you don't know, with this global trade war, China. has a 34% retaliatory tariff.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Potentially EU digital restrictions threatens U.S. exports. So with that being said, there's a lot of things that could shrink the participation of gamers in the gaming industry. Let's just say raising the prices is one of them. As I think when it comes to the PlayStation 4 fan base, it is larger than any other console. Let me see, PlayStation 4 base.

Starting point is 00:01:04 to other basis because i believe when it comes to playstation four and the people who still play that game mind you let's see when a playstation four came out release date playstation four came out november 15 2013 the same day well not same day but the same year gtie five came out what a coencky ding right it's almost like let me chill so anyways um playstation four right they currently have uh sold over a hundred and 17 million units worldwide as of and that was back in December 22 so it's definitely larger now but it made it one of the best selling consoles ever and as of April 2024 uh there's 49 million active PS4 consoles accounting for 50% of PlayStation's total monthly active consoles 98 million

Starting point is 00:01:59 across PS4 and PS5 all right let's just do some math right quick you know what I'm saying I'm no mathematician but I do have a calculator so we're just going to type in 98 subtracted by 49 right so that probably means uh 49 people so it's half and half as far as PS4 and PS5 player base that is no braino when it comes to the overall advancement of gaming as far as graphically and as far as gameplay mechanics because they're always thinking in the back of their mind well if we downgrade the graphics a little bit we open up our content to a whole other player base because now we get to put it on on PS4 so that is why people say to upgrade if you have the means to save please do because that helps the gaming industry if you keep playing on your PS4 because people are saying oh why i get a

Starting point is 00:02:51 PS5 when fortnight runs well on my PS4 when call the duty runs well on my PS4 those be the same well not all of them i don't want to you know it's not a monolith but majority of them are the same people who come out and say, well, guess what? When it comes to advancement, if somebody's developing a game and they have the option to have it look phenomenal as far as graphic-wise, or they have the option to have more of a player base and downgrade the graphics a little bit, which one do you think they're going to go with? They're probably going to downgrade the graphics because now they have more exposure, which in

Starting point is 00:03:29 turn leads to more of a monetary gain in the long haul. So anyways, um, the reason for the segment after me going over the tariffs earlier in this episode, which definitely click my link to share in my bio to follow me on my social media as far as me posting different clips of this episode. But the main thing about the tariffs episode was me just going over the gaming and music industry and the effects that the tariffs would have on it. This segment is specifically getting into how Microsoft did the unthinkable. Not only is PS5 outselling the Xbox Series X, 4 to 1, meaning for every Xbox Series X or S consoles sold, there's at least four PS5 consoles that are being sold as well.

Starting point is 00:04:15 So the PS5 is just completely running away with the console war, which I don't really get into, I feel like as a consumer, I do believe it's in the consumer's best interest for Xbox to compete and let's just say they're not right now so if you're not competing on that front right and majority of the console player base is on ps5 why in the world would you come out and say effective may 1st 2025 we are raising console prices we are raising controller prices we are raising first party game prices it's getting to the point where if you're blaming these on the president and the trade war in the global tariffs how come you're doing this this before PlayStation does it is almost as if you're tone deaf you don't know exactly where you

Starting point is 00:05:03 lie in the console war so let me just remind you PlayStation 5 has a 4 to 1 lead on the xbox series x that means they're not catching up anytime soon that's basically what that means when people think about oh what is the biggest console base we could go to for to maximize the probability of bringing in revenue putting it on PS5 is a four times better bet than putting it on an Xbox series X or S now I know people are going to argue the game pass but then comes in the PC players as far as those being those games also being available on Steam so why not just become a PC player is getting to the point where there's an option around Xbox every which in every which way you turn so increasing the prices having these price hikes is

Starting point is 00:05:51 just going to hurt your overall player base even more. It may get to the point where it's now a 7 to 1 ratio as far as PlayStation 5 compared to Xbox series X and S because where's PlayStation's PlayStation's announcement? You already know it's coming. It's just a slap in the face to gamers that Xbox was the first, well, not first, because technically Nintendo was the first to come out and say that, well, no, because the consoles, as far as the Nintendo's switch to, that price wasn't out of the world, out of this world. It was basically the first party titles such as the Donkey Kong game and the Mario

Starting point is 00:06:26 Cart World game that was throwing people off as far as the price point. But as far as the hardware, people were saying that was a fair price point. So it's interesting how Xbox was the first company to come out and raise prices across the board. Nintendo just did it for a couple first party games. Xbox came out and said, we're raising the prices for hardware. As far as Xbox Series 5, going from $350 to $430. Instead of going over all these price increases, let's just say everything has increased by at least 20%. So whatever you're going to get, whether it's the Xbox Series S, whether it's an Xbox Series X, whether it's a base wireless controller, whether it's a special edition controller, everything has raised and it increased as far as the base price. and that is very concerning as far as the overall landscape for gaming because like I just said a lot of people on PS4 to the point where it's split 50-50 as far as PlayStation 5 players and PS4 players so now you're making it even harder from a monetary standpoint to purchase any other option right let's say they didn't want to go with the PS5 they wanted to go with the Xbox series X and S because of the game pass but now like they really can't because of the increase in price because people

Starting point is 00:07:47 people are already spending more on other things outside of gaming. Keep in mind, we're talking about the gaming and music industry. This is a leisure. This is a luxury. It's not a necessity. Food, shelter, water, that's a necessity. Increasing prices in the gaming industry is going to lead people to make a hard decision. And I would assume that eight times out of 10 people are going to choose the necessities over a luxury item, right?

Starting point is 00:08:15 and I would hope. So when it comes into Xbox sales context, I mean, overall, all the prices are increased and there are, of course, they are blaming the tariff. I mean, a lot of companies are going to come out. And it is a fair excuse as far as why they're raising the prices. It's just Xbox being the first one to come out even before PlayStation,

Starting point is 00:08:38 even before Steam. I'm going to keep reiterating. Diving into PC gaming made me realize how often games go on sale on the Steam platform. It's really insane as far as the package you get and PC gaming. I mean, of course, I think it has the highest upfront cost as far as building a game and PC. But after that, the games on Steam go on discount or discounted way more often than Xbox game desktop. or not desktop the game marketplace and the the PlayStation marketplace like as far as

Starting point is 00:09:19 discounts steam has a way more often to the point where now you can get it at an even lower price than you would if you would buy the same game on Xbox or PlayStation so them raising the prices even before Steam before PC um it's very it's very concerning so when it comes to that fact now we have to bring up the other elephant room what does that mean for gt six they've already seen mario cart world being priced at eighty dollars now people are looking at gtas six and saying oh it's definitely going to be a hundred dollars uh at launch and we're talking about the base edition now hopefully hopefully it doesn't happen but you know when the take two CEO comes out time and time again to throw out these theories

Starting point is 00:10:03 like oh what if we had a subscription model oh what if we had a uh it was it was something else well there's a subscription model and he said oh what if he had to pay by the hour model and I was like what in the world is he trying to do is almost like he's trying to get you ready for a certain announcement as far as the price point so it's entering a scary era in gaming because ever since the 1990s gaming has skyrocketed as far as in cost so now when you're looking at certain games going on a discount, it's not going to be as frequent because now they're going to say due to the tariffs, due to the rising development costs, due to the industry shifts, we're going to have to raise our prices expeditiously to counteract the market currently. And I think this is just

Starting point is 00:11:00 only going to have people go more towards digital products and subscription-based models, which is going back to the game pass. But now everything. on the Xbox side is increased as far as the console as far as the games right so I would see I would say more people go towards the game pass route because you know unfair it's unfair but a lot of people are saying oh game pass is welfare for gamers I'm like hold them now aren't we in a interest in the economy right now I think everything you should be doing is maximizing your dollar so if you want to play the game pass south of midnight is available on that game pass oblivion is available on the game pass guess what those two games pay for itself as far as if you go on month the month so i think in general

Starting point is 00:11:45 the digital's subscription-based model um pathway is going to be a viable option for a lot of gamers out there but for the majority of times i think gamers are going to find the hard pathway as far as if they're going to go with the necessities or the leisure slash luxurious items that gaming is like at the end of the day gaming and music is not that serious to be spending your hard-earned money over necessities, right? If you can only afford necessity or leisure slash luxury, hopefully you choose necessities 10 times out of 10. And that's why I could say,

Starting point is 00:12:24 because for the majority of times, I think people don't understand the power of the consumer. If we band it together and then buy these things, right, which, you know, technically Xbox is already facing that. I mean, people are paying for the PS5 over the Xbox series X-Net. So I don't know why. they were the first company to come out and increase prices across the board like people were jumping on their platform or like their platform is selling like hotcakes because that's far from

Starting point is 00:12:48 the truth so that's the main thing i wanted to get into obviously if you want to go check out my gaming tariffs oh no just my tariffs segment on gaming and music industry as a whole i would definitely type in tariffs analytic dreams with a z with a share pop up but in general it's something to keep note of because we are, and not to be like cynical or pessimistic, but we are definitely entering times where, let's just say, stretching your dollar and saving is a high priority. So with that being said, click my link to your in my bio. Let me know one of my social media is.

Starting point is 00:13:28 What do you think about Microsoft just coming out and increase in prices across the board as far as console, as far as controller, as far as first party games? and at the end of the day, what do you think is going to be a result as far as Xbox increasing these prices? And do you think PlayStation will follow suit or will they stay strong and keep their prices the same?

Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "MICROSOFT IS RAISING PRICES ON XBOX CONSOLES, CONTROLLERS, AND GAMES WORLDWIDE"

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