US spending on video game consoles fell 27% last month, marking the worst November in two decades as tariffs and rising component costs pushed prices to record highs.
US spending on video game consoles fell 27% last month, marking the worst November in two decades as tariffs and rising component costs pushed prices to record highs.
Then Trump suggested children are capable of cutting back on a basic school supply: pencils.
"No, I'm not saying that," Trump when asked whether Americans can expect to see empty store shelves in the future. "I'm just saying they don't need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five."
Nonetheless, Trump disputed that his comments should be interpreted as an acknowledgement that prices for Americans are going to increase as a result of his sweeping universal tariff on products imported to the United States.
"No. I think tariffs are going to be great for us because it’s going to make us rich," Trump said.
We're going to become so rich we're not going to know where to spend all that money.
'I don't think that a beautiful baby girl needs – that's 11 years old – needs to have 30 dolls,' Trump said, defending his tariffs. Also: five pencils are fine.
I don’t Believe it has anything to do with the age of the hardware. The PS5 and especially the PS5 Pro are very capable machines. And PlayStation had an amazing sale this black Friday. I just think people literally don’t have money to spend on something like that right now.
I mean, they're pretty good, but they've also been out for a while. I think that a lot of the people that want and can afford it have been buying it over the past couple years. Most people don't tend to wait several years to get new consoles. I do, but even I've had my series s since early 2023. The tariffs can't be helping.
also other than Nintendo a serious lack of exclusives/zero console sellers.
the PS5 has what? maybe 15 exclusives? less? whats' the point? There's nothing out on the PS5 that makes me say "I need to own this console" especially when many of their "exclusives" are now available on PC. I just wish they gave us Bloodborne.
I've owned every Playstation console with the exception of the PS5. I even had the PSP and the Vita which I adored. but yeah the PS5 is the first playstation console where I've said I don't need to own it.
I am very much on Team PC for video games, but the fact that consoles are a closed, locked-down system --- something I typically think of as a drawback --- can be a real strength for some game applications.
If you want to play a competitive multiplayer video game on a level footing, you don't want people modifying the software on their system to give them an advantage. There are all sorts of companies with intrusive anticheat software on PC trying doing a half-assed job trying to make an open system work like a closed one. The console guys have more-or-less solved this.
And then there's the hardware aspect. There is an entire industry on the PC selling "gamer" hardware that aims to give a player some degree of an edge. Higher resolution monitors with faster refresh rates driven by rendering hardware that can render more frames. Mice that report their position more-frequently. Hardware with extra buttons to invoke macros. A lot of that industry is built around figuring out ways to inject pay-to-win into competitive multiplayer video games.
I'm pretty sure that the
... show more
I am very much on Team PC for video games, but the fact that consoles are a closed, locked-down system --- something I typically think of as a drawback --- can be a real strength for some game applications.
If you want to play a competitive multiplayer video game on a level footing, you don't want people modifying the software on their system to give them an advantage. There are all sorts of companies with intrusive anticheat software on PC trying doing a half-assed job trying to make an open system work like a closed one. The console guys have more-or-less solved this.
And then there's the hardware aspect. There is an entire industry on the PC selling "gamer" hardware that aims to give a player some degree of an edge. Higher resolution monitors with faster refresh rates driven by rendering hardware that can render more frames. Mice that report their position more-frequently. Hardware with extra buttons to invoke macros. A lot of that industry is built around figuring out ways to inject pay-to-win into competitive multiplayer video games.
I'm pretty sure that the great majority of video game players do not really want pay-to-win in the competitive multiplayer video games that they play. Consoles simply do a much better job there.
Now, if you take competitive multiplayer out of the mix, then suddenly the open hardware and software situation on the PC becomes an advantage. You can mod games to add features and content and provide a more-immersive experience. It means that I can play all sorts of older games and have a experience that improves over time when doing so.
But a lot of people do want to play competitive multiplayer games, and unless something major changes, consoles have a major area where they are simply better-suited to gaming.
Two ways that it might change:
If single player gaming displaces competitive multiplayer. My guess is that single player games with sophisticated video game AI will tend to increasingly encroach on that, though not overnight. Multiplayer saw one huge boost in the past two decades or so, which was widespread, high-bandwidth low-latency network access. But I think that that's probably a one-off. I can't think of any huge future multiplayer-specific improvements like that that will come along. And I can imagine a lot of future improvements to video game AI.
If PCs get some sort of locked down trusted computing environment, probably with its own memory and processor, that runs alongside the open emvironment. Basically, part of a console in a PC.
But absent one of those, I think that there are going to be gaming areas where the console excels that the PC does not.
the PS5 has what? maybe 15 exclusives? less? whats’ the point? There’s nothing out on the PS5 that makes me say “I need to own this console” especially when many of their “exclusives” are now available on PC.
Last time I booted up my PS5, I was teaching my son how to play Minecraft on PC. I was going to hop into the world he had made on my PC from the PS5....and that's when I discovered Sony locks out all network multiplayer behind PSN, even just over LAN.
At this point, I might just sell the fucking thing. My PC (5800X3D/7900XTX/32GB) can run PS3 games just fine via RPCS3 with a Dualsense controller, and that's 99% of the reason I paid for PSN. But even then, playing PS3 games on the PS5 is just streaming from rackmounted PS3 hardware based in some Sony datacenter. So I'm not even sure why I still have it. I don't play on it enough these days to justify paying nearly $30/mo for PSN when I can just get PS exclusives on Steam and buy cheap PS3 games on eBay to rip and play on my PC.
... show more
the PS5 has what? maybe 15 exclusives? less? whats’ the point? There’s nothing out on the PS5 that makes me say “I need to own this console” especially when many of their “exclusives” are now available on PC.
Last time I booted up my PS5, I was teaching my son how to play Minecraft on PC. I was going to hop into the world he had made on my PC from the PS5....and that's when I discovered Sony locks out all network multiplayer behind PSN, even just over LAN.
At this point, I might just sell the fucking thing. My PC (5800X3D/7900XTX/32GB) can run PS3 games just fine via RPCS3 with a Dualsense controller, and that's 99% of the reason I paid for PSN. But even then, playing PS3 games on the PS5 is just streaming from rackmounted PS3 hardware based in some Sony datacenter. So I'm not even sure why I still have it. I don't play on it enough these days to justify paying nearly $30/mo for PSN when I can just get PS exclusives on Steam and buy cheap PS3 games on eBay to rip and play on my PC.
The PS5 has incredibly capable hardware, but it's so locked down that it's impossible to enjoy anything about it without paying for PSN.
In those figures, do they count standalone VR headsets as consoles? Cuz they basically are. May not be the same shape, but they do the same thing. And would fill the same role in christmas shopping regards. With the Quest 3s going down to 200 USD for black friday, I have to imagine there were some units sold there.
Well let's see, what's on the market in the video game console vertical?
Playstation 5, initially released in 2020 with 84 million units shipped. Still not an amazing software library, it's been since the PS3 that I've heard of anything on Playstation that even made me want to go over to a friend's house to play that with them.
Xbox Series S and X, again released in 2020, only 24 million units sold between the two models, and I'm amazed that many people bought one given how many balls Microsoft's gaming division has dropped since the 360, to include naming the consoles the "Series S and X" immediately after the "One S and One X". They've all but announced they're exiting the entertainment-capable software market entirely; it wouldn't surprise me if they removed the ability to render knock knock jokes from TrueType fonts at this point.
Switch 2, the only main console that came out this year, in 6 months it's sold 10 million units pretty much entirely out of force of habit I think because we're entering our third human generation of "You buy a Nintendo for
... show more
Well let's see, what's on the market in the video game console vertical?
Playstation 5, initially released in 2020 with 84 million units shipped. Still not an amazing software library, it's been since the PS3 that I've heard of anything on Playstation that even made me want to go over to a friend's house to play that with them.
Xbox Series S and X, again released in 2020, only 24 million units sold between the two models, and I'm amazed that many people bought one given how many balls Microsoft's gaming division has dropped since the 360, to include naming the consoles the "Series S and X" immediately after the "One S and One X". They've all but announced they're exiting the entertainment-capable software market entirely; it wouldn't surprise me if they removed the ability to render knock knock jokes from TrueType fonts at this point.
Switch 2, the only main console that came out this year, in 6 months it's sold 10 million units pretty much entirely out of force of habit I think because we're entering our third human generation of "You buy a Nintendo for children." The library consists of $80 games, most of which are Switch games that run at higher resolution and frame rates. And they've been egregiously anti-consumer this generation, like, more than usual and that's saying something. Oh, and doesn't the console fall out from between the joycons now?
Steam Deck, released in ~~2003~~ 2023, has sold some 4 million units, it almost doesn't count as it's a gaming laptop with face buttons and joysticks instead of a keyboard, is also here.
For some context:
Playstation 4 sold 117 million units
Xbox One sold 58 million
Switch sold 154 million
Prices are going up, fewer games are being made, "monetization" is getting more and more egregious, and again I wonder how many people are buying Nintendos for children out of sheer force of habit.
I usually like nintendo type systems and would scrounge together money for one for me and my wife to play together when they released one. We aren’t even trying for the switch 2. The from launch 80 dollar game releases, paired with baked in upgrade costs for games we already have and subscriptions for everything in between; it’s as a whole not worth it.
Playstation still wants to play the bullshit exclusive game so I will never buy a playstation again. They are getting better, but I won't support that behavior. Epic games can take a walk too.
Switch 2 is selling at a faster rate than Switch 1 did at this stage in its lifecycle. The OG Switch is on track to be the best selling console of all time.
I'd imagine that this is entirely happening because xbox has collapsed amongst Microsoft loudly conceding this console generation and heavily suggesting future support for their consoles will be limited. This is catastrophic in an era when many people buy digital copies of games and do not want to be locked in to a dead platform. I bought a 2nd hand Series S as a budget console but will only buy games for it on deep discount or if they have a low sticker price; the result of that has been that it has turned into a retro games platform for me to play SSX3 and the old Dead Or Alive games.
PS5 Pro is too expensive for limited gains while the market for the OG PS5 will be saturated by this point. I'd guess that the release of GTA6 will increase sales next year though.
Switch 2 was selling super well, but it was out competed by the PS5 (probably due to sales) and almost lost to the Nex Playground (probably due to cost again) according to news reports.
Armor 27T Pro has great hardware and pretty amazing battery life, if you can deal with the absurd weight of the device. However, the software operating system and system apps have made the phone unusable for me in just a few months.
After months of trying to get this Ulefone Armor 27T pro working properly, it has some major drawbacks that have made me switch to a different phone.
I use Signal, Textra, Whatsapp, Telegram, Instagram and Gaia GPS regularly, and these all have issues.
For Textra, if the app hasn't been started lately, text message simply do not arrive at the phone. They end up in a black hole somewhere. Open textra and look at it, and send a text to it, and it works fine. Close textra for a few hours, and send a text, it never arrives, even after reopening the app.
Likewise with Signal, Whatsapp, Telegram, Instagram, after sitting idle for a few hours, you can send a message to them, and there will be no notification. Only after you check the app will it poll for undelivered messages and then notify you.
With Gaia GPS, It'll work fine for
... show more
Armor 27T Pro has great hardware and pretty amazing battery life, if you can deal with the absurd weight of the device. However, the software operating system and system apps have made the phone unusable for me in just a few months.
After months of trying to get this Ulefone Armor 27T pro working properly, it has some major drawbacks that have made me switch to a different phone.
I use Signal, Textra, Whatsapp, Telegram, Instagram and Gaia GPS regularly, and these all have issues.
For Textra, if the app hasn't been started lately, text message simply do not arrive at the phone. They end up in a black hole somewhere. Open textra and look at it, and send a text to it, and it works fine. Close textra for a few hours, and send a text, it never arrives, even after reopening the app.
Likewise with Signal, Whatsapp, Telegram, Instagram, after sitting idle for a few hours, you can send a message to them, and there will be no notification. Only after you check the app will it poll for undelivered messages and then notify you.
With Gaia GPS, It'll work fine for 20 minutes of a trail run, then stop working. When I reopen Gaia GPS to check or to finish my run, it will have continued to count the time taken, but the GPS will have stopped working, and the mapline will instantly teleport from where it stopped working to where I am now.
Now, I have spent months on forums, youtube videos, and discussing it with app publishers, but no amount of editing battery optimization settings, enabling or disabling apps in duraspeed, or just all-out disabling a raft of system apps, (Including com.pri.screenoff.killer) has resolved these issues Here are the list of bloatware and pest apps that I've disabled or uninstalled:
There are a few other annoying things about the software, but they would be ok if I wasn't losing basic app functionality, and especially text messages disappearing into the aether.
I've bought an alternative phone, and I'll probably keep the Ulefone and use it only for its thermal camera, endoscope and microscope, maybe as a hammer too, but its not usable in daily life.
At this point, despite the hardware being pretty impressive, and the price being reasonable, I must strongly recommend against buying a Ulefone device.
The west is desperate and panicking, and its propaganda machine is failing
If anything remotely good can come from the carnage in Gaza, it is that it has opened the eyes of many more people around the world to exactly what the west really stands for: violence, lies and grift.
The west has become a global Donald Trump, and now it is shitting its pants.
Yeah, but they still have bombs, guns and thirst for murder so it's not like we're off the hook. Peace won't come until the West changes its culture drastically or it simply disappears.
Every oil company has bankruptcy in their plan for leaving AB. If they don't purposely bankrupt their current company, they plan to sell to a subsidiary with no assets and then put it into bankruptcy. Standard oil business practice to take all the value while never paying any of the liabilities.
This could possibly absolve the "parent" company of any future environmental responsibilities.
Basically the law says the current owners are responsible for any damage to the land . If it can be proven to be preexisting to purchase then the previous own (if they are still around) can be passed responsibility for clean up. This can repeat over and over.
That off shore shell company or deceased owner could be the escape goat.
Norway: turns their oil into one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. Canada: best i can do is crippling fossil fuel dependency, and hundreds of millions in debt for clean up work.
tal
in reply to misk • • •usatoday.com/story/news/politi…
A 'beautiful baby girl' doesn't need so many dolls, Trump says. Also: five pencils are enough
, USA TODAY (USA TODAY)like this
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saltnotsugar
in reply to tal • • •like this
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Kellenved
in reply to saltnotsugar • • •ieatpwns
in reply to tal • • •BarbedDentalFloss
in reply to misk • • •Prox
in reply to misk • • •This is a pretty fucking easy one to crack, fellas.
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F/15/Cali@threads.net
in reply to Prox • • •That and diminishing returns on new consoles.
“Oh no, I won’t be able to play- wait, no, the game will be on both consoles.”
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TwinTitans
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fibojoly
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in reply to Prox • • •like this
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killabeezio
in reply to Prox • • •like this
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rozodru
in reply to Prox • • •also other than Nintendo a serious lack of exclusives/zero console sellers.
the PS5 has what? maybe 15 exclusives? less? whats' the point? There's nothing out on the PS5 that makes me say "I need to own this console" especially when many of their "exclusives" are now available on PC. I just wish they gave us Bloodborne.
I've owned every Playstation console with the exception of the PS5. I even had the PSP and the Vita which I adored. but yeah the PS5 is the first playstation console where I've said I don't need to own it.
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tal
in reply to rozodru • • •I am very much on Team PC for video games, but the fact that consoles are a closed, locked-down system --- something I typically think of as a drawback --- can be a real strength for some game applications.
If you want to play a competitive multiplayer video game on a level footing, you don't want people modifying the software on their system to give them an advantage. There are all sorts of companies with intrusive anticheat software on PC trying doing a half-assed job trying to make an open system work like a closed one. The console guys have more-or-less solved this.
And then there's the hardware aspect. There is an entire industry on the PC selling "gamer" hardware that aims to give a player some degree of an edge. Higher resolution monitors with faster refresh rates driven by rendering hardware that can render more frames. Mice that report their position more-frequently. Hardware with extra buttons to invoke macros. A lot of that industry is built around figuring out ways to inject pay-to-win into competitive multiplayer video games.
I'm pretty sure that the
... show moreI am very much on Team PC for video games, but the fact that consoles are a closed, locked-down system --- something I typically think of as a drawback --- can be a real strength for some game applications.
If you want to play a competitive multiplayer video game on a level footing, you don't want people modifying the software on their system to give them an advantage. There are all sorts of companies with intrusive anticheat software on PC trying doing a half-assed job trying to make an open system work like a closed one. The console guys have more-or-less solved this.
And then there's the hardware aspect. There is an entire industry on the PC selling "gamer" hardware that aims to give a player some degree of an edge. Higher resolution monitors with faster refresh rates driven by rendering hardware that can render more frames. Mice that report their position more-frequently. Hardware with extra buttons to invoke macros. A lot of that industry is built around figuring out ways to inject pay-to-win into competitive multiplayer video games.
I'm pretty sure that the great majority of video game players do not really want pay-to-win in the competitive multiplayer video games that they play. Consoles simply do a much better job there.
Now, if you take competitive multiplayer out of the mix, then suddenly the open hardware and software situation on the PC becomes an advantage. You can mod games to add features and content and provide a more-immersive experience. It means that I can play all sorts of older games and have a experience that improves over time when doing so.
But a lot of people do want to play competitive multiplayer games, and unless something major changes, consoles have a major area where they are simply better-suited to gaming.
Two ways that it might change:
But absent one of those, I think that there are going to be gaming areas where the console excels that the PC does not.
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Lka1988
in reply to rozodru • • •Last time I booted up my PS5, I was teaching my son how to play Minecraft on PC. I was going to hop into the world he had made on my PC from the PS5....and that's when I discovered Sony locks out all network multiplayer behind PSN, even just over LAN.
At this point, I might just sell the fucking thing. My PC (5800X3D/7900XTX/32GB) can run PS3 games just fine via RPCS3 with a Dualsense controller, and that's 99% of the reason I paid for PSN. But even then, playing PS3 games on the PS5 is just streaming from rackmounted PS3 hardware based in some Sony datacenter. So I'm not even sure why I still have it. I don't play on it enough these days to justify paying nearly $30/mo for PSN when I can just get PS exclusives on Steam and buy cheap PS3 games on eBay to rip and play on my PC.
... show moreLast time I booted up my PS5, I was teaching my son how to play Minecraft on PC. I was going to hop into the world he had made on my PC from the PS5....and that's when I discovered Sony locks out all network multiplayer behind PSN, even just over LAN.
At this point, I might just sell the fucking thing. My PC (5800X3D/7900XTX/32GB) can run PS3 games just fine via RPCS3 with a Dualsense controller, and that's 99% of the reason I paid for PSN. But even then, playing PS3 games on the PS5 is just streaming from rackmounted PS3 hardware based in some Sony datacenter. So I'm not even sure why I still have it. I don't play on it enough these days to justify paying nearly $30/mo for PSN when I can just get PS exclusives on Steam and buy cheap PS3 games on eBay to rip and play on my PC.
The PS5 has incredibly capable hardware, but it's so locked down that it's impossible to enjoy anything about it without paying for PSN.
forgetful_fox
in reply to misk • • •like this
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Tarquinn2049
in reply to misk • • •jacksilver
in reply to Tarquinn2049 • • •In the past I think they have, I remember the Quest 3 being a top selling console when it released.
The best I could find this year was this article, but I'm not sure if they're just mentioning the VR headset sales in the same article.
thegamebusiness.com/p/ps5-ea-s…
PS5, EA Sports FC 26 and Hogwarts Legacy come out top during Europe’s Black Friday
Christopher Dring (The Game Business)Captain Aggravated
in reply to misk • • •Well let's see, what's on the market in the video game console vertical?
- Playstation 5, initially released in 2020 with 84 million units shipped. Still not an amazing software library, it's been since the PS3 that I've heard of anything on Playstation that even made me want to go over to a friend's house to play that with them.
- Xbox Series S and X, again released in 2020, only 24 million units sold between the two models, and I'm amazed that many people bought one given how many balls Microsoft's gaming division has dropped since the 360, to include naming the consoles the "Series S and X" immediately after the "One S and One X". They've all but announced they're exiting the entertainment-capable software market entirely; it wouldn't surprise me if they removed the ability to render knock knock jokes from TrueType fonts at this point.
- Switch 2, the only main console that came out this year, in 6 months it's sold 10 million units pretty much entirely out of force of habit I think because we're entering our third human generation of "You buy a Nintendo for
... show moreWell let's see, what's on the market in the video game console vertical?
For some context:
Prices are going up, fewer games are being made, "monetization" is getting more and more egregious, and again I wonder how many people are buying Nintendos for children out of sheer force of habit.
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Skullgrid
in reply to Captain Aggravated • • •🤔
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Captain Aggravated
in reply to Skullgrid • • •like this
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deliriousdreams
in reply to Captain Aggravated • • •You can stop hitting them. They're already dead.
But seriously this was a great breakdown.
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Coldgoron
in reply to misk • • •AngryCommieKender
in reply to Coldgoron • • •Jayjader
in reply to misk • • •skozzii
in reply to misk • • •steeznson
in reply to misk • • •Switch 2 is selling at a faster rate than Switch 1 did at this stage in its lifecycle. The OG Switch is on track to be the best selling console of all time.
I'd imagine that this is entirely happening because xbox has collapsed amongst Microsoft loudly conceding this console generation and heavily suggesting future support for their consoles will be limited. This is catastrophic in an era when many people buy digital copies of games and do not want to be locked in to a dead platform. I bought a 2nd hand Series S as a budget console but will only buy games for it on deep discount or if they have a low sticker price; the result of that has been that it has turned into a retro games platform for me to play SSX3 and the old Dead Or Alive games.
PS5 Pro is too expensive for limited gains while the market for the OG PS5 will be saturated by this point. I'd guess that the release of GTA6 will increase sales next year though.
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jacksilver
in reply to steeznson • • •Switch 2 was selling super well, but it was out competed by the PS5 (probably due to sales) and almost lost to the Nex Playground (probably due to cost again) according to news reports.
gamerant.com/video-game-hardwa…
That seems to be a sign that the console/games are priced too high.
Lka1988
in reply to misk • • •Console price increases
Game Pass/PSN price increases
$80+ Nintendo games
Micron axing consumer RAM sales
Nvidia cutting consumer GPU production
Gee, I wonder why...
aesviation
in reply to Lka1988 • • •