No… no, no, nah! Absolutely not! There is no way on this green earth that the very reverend Asha, patron-saint of consumer-friendly-ism would allow that. It’ll be £199.99 and not a penny more I tell ya!

edit. and it’ll have a free optical disk drive… AND save all of physical game-dom! /s

Plus costs to play online.

It really makes the Switch 2 price/performance look very reasonable. Plus, playing online only costs $20/year if I am not mistaken.

Let’s all worry about it when they both release whenever that happens and at what price.

Let’s enjoy what we have and the great games coming, be it PS5, Xbox or switch 2.

This will be the forgotten generation at those prices. Woof.

@get2sammyb

Absolutely true. But if you are a parent buying a videogame console for your child, I think the Switch 2 will always be half price or less compared to Helix and PS6. And in this economy, that is huge.

It will be interesting to see prices for PS5, PS5 Pro and Xbox Series when the new hotness is available.

What makes the PS6 more intriguing is that Sony can focus on dedicated gaming hardware, with developers optimising specifically for it, rather than trying to bridge the gap between console and PC.

Xbox has reportedly sold around 35 million Series X|S consoles compared to roughly 95 million PS5s. That's a massive difference in install base, and I don't see an expensive next gen Xbox suddenly convincing millions of PlayStation players to jump ship. If Helix costs $1,200, $1,800, Microsoft is pricing itself into an even smaller market.

What's also ironic is everyone criticising Sony over physical media when Xbox has spent years releasing games without physical discs, often without making it particularly obvious, and is now pushing the disc to digital conversation further. Microsoft has hardly been the champion of physical gaming people pretend it is.

I'd rather see Sony deliver a well optimised gaming console at a sensible price than Microsoft turn Xbox into an expensive PC hybrid and expect people to follow.

I’m quite aware of the Disc-to-Digital initiative so this may seem redundant or out of place, but one easy method of getting me to race to my local game store and plunk down ~$2K or more would be to Recommit to physical media (that means full game on disc and playable offline, none of this Bethesda BS where a few MB’s of Indy or Oblivion are on an otherwise empty disc) and if Xbox guarantees full legal ownership of all content purchased on the Xbox ecosystem/storefronts.

That’s really all that’s holding me back from committing right now, my ownership rights being up in the air and continuing to have something nice to line the shelves with.

Remember MS and Asha have and are playing a major role in why these prices will be a thing.

Next gen will kill PS and Xbox at these prices. No one outside of a small rich few will be pay those prices. Yet another thing AI has killed.

I believe their next hardware will be marketed with subscription plans: you pay for your gamepass subscription and then maybe say 30-50 more dollars for X years to pay for your Xbox. And then in 3-5 years you have paid for your console the offer you games that you can play on any PC. It's completely insane imho but I know some people would embrace it.

Pretty much all of the consoles are going to keep going up in price. It sucks but it's the state of things.

Not surprising.
Xbox will be unable to subsidise in any way if Helix is to run anything other than just Xbox's marketplace.

@Balaam_ Fun fact Sony supports physical gaming far more then MS does. Wolverine and Saros can be played straight from disc without a online connection while Gears and Forza just have licence keys on discs.

To echo what a lot of people have said about PCs, I'd rather get a $1800 powerhouse with functionality beyond a console than a $1000 moderately-stronger-than-the-PS5 PS6.

But also... I'm still perfectly happy with a PS5 and Switch 2.

It's going to go the way of phones: you'll lease the device on a plan that comes with PS Plus Essential/Extra/Premium, locked into a contract for x number of years. I wouldn't be shocked if they do away with Essential and just keep Extra and Premium. Same with whatever the Xbox plans are.

That's the only way any of these will sell. No one buys a new iPhone or Galaxy (or whatever the flagship Android is now) every year (generally speaking).

Xbox tried a similar plan several years ago and it never took off simply because the consoles were still relatively affordable. Now? Not at all.

Considering everything, if Sony can get PS6 to 999$ that will be a tolerable deal.

Silent Hill Townfall on a 5Pro, a game developed by a core team of about 30 people, is legitimately one of the most graphically impressive and immersive games I’ve played. I’m less convinced than ever that graphics need to be pushed further, at least in the console market, which has always been defined as a more affordable and accessible alternative to our performance-focused PC brethren. Leave the graphics scalable and let hardware innovations like haptics and handheld options maintain console relevance. If a little bit of extra raw computing power is truly such a bottle neck, perhaps it’s time to think a bit differently.

I used to complain about my backlog but now I’m glad I have it. I have enough gaming content to keep me busy for 5+ years without buying a single new game

@RoomWithaMoose a new pc will cost a lot more then 1800 today..

At that price tag I can still get a killer PC.

@johnedwin I'm talking about the Helix.

The thing this article is saying might be priced at $1800.

Things that are not going to happen.
Source: Trust me bro.

Talking about the original article, not PS.

I guess little Timmy isnt getting that brand new console for Christmas next year.

@johnedwin while it 'can' cost as much or more than that It 'can' also be significantly cheaper than that too. The PC world is modular so you have choices when building. Something that you don't get on consoles.

@wilky Just get li'l Timmy a Switch 2 Pokemon bundle next year.

...Ooh, boy. That might be somewhat of a problem for Sony and Microsoft, come to think of it.

I will always hold out till all the facts, features and prices are on the table, when these companies reveal their consoles somewhere next year perhaps. But its highly likely that PS6 will be my main platform for the next generation

@DennisReynolds Microsoft is taking a role here, because the customers want it. I don’t want to go back to a world where I can’t ask Copilot to analyse my emails for specific information which can only be extracted when checking multiple emails at once. Or making a Teams videocall without asking Teams to create two PowerPoint slides with the discussed key ideas to discuss it within the team and with people from other departments.

These AI tools ARE powerful, they increase the precision of my work and safe me from many tedious tasks, and my company is happily (?) paying Microsoft quite some money to let me focus more on communicating (= negotiating) with people and being creative.

@Bizzy be careful what you say..some folks round these parts will accuse you of trying to turn people to pc gaming..

@DennisReynolds I mean, "far more" is a pretty debatable term to use.

Sony's support of physical has, so far, been better than Microsoft's. But you can't just ignore that Sony — not Microsoft — has announced its intentions to go full on digital.

@DennisReynolds yeah enthusiasts will buy them, and they will have good sales for a year but will taper off imo. If that analyst is correct and next gen sells 40 percent less lifetime compared to current gen then we are in trouble.

It's the casuals that put money in Sony's wallet. They are who companies target and high prices like that are going to make mum and dad reconsider buying little Timmy a next gen console when he can play Fortnight just fine on the PS5.

@Bizzy aye but the people who buy the equivalent of PC potatoes don’t really frequent gaming news sites. Everyone who’s anyone who talks PC across social media is rocking dual-5090’s with DLSS5 admirite /s

@DennisReynolds
I don't agree regarding these prices killing next gen, at least not on the PS side. But it will make it harder for Sony.
I just think that the cross gen period will make the difference up - with users being enticed to upgrade as soon as they are able, because of compromised experiences on PS5.
I think we discussed QSSR recently, and I would say that its existence shows Sony know PS5 will remain important to next gen.

I fully agree with you though regarding Microsoft being a big part of the problem - raising prices due to AI. Whilst I never thought Xbox could be a serious competitor to Sony next gen, I think these prices spell the end for them in hardware.

Another factor to consider is the extreme price rises of PC parts, and how this might drive people, particularly new customers, away from PC and maybe towards the comparatively low cost option of PS6.

You would have to be functionally braindead to spend these prices on these upcoming consoles.

@RoomWithaMoose That’s true, but lets not act that with actions like putting codes in a box and refusing to put full games on disc for years now, MS hadn’t already decided to phase out of discs themselves.

The only reason they might now turn around on that decision, is because of the backlash Sony’s has got from it

Sony need to worry about now and PS5 stock.
All PS5 models zero stock at Argos UK, in store and home delivery.

No that’s the issue right now with GTA6 next month and Christmas near.

What a total generational F-UP, this generation has been.

@RoomWithaMoose True, but PlayStation at least came right out with what they’re going to do unlike Xbox pretending that their neat little workaround isn’t exactly that for same ends.

@psmr Fun fact: dual gpu setups were dropped after the 3000 series of GPUs, so no you can't dual 5090s in a single pc lol.

@KundaliniRising333 Nope. People buy $1500 tv’s, $1500 GPU’s , expensive smartphones, own horses, expensive sound systems, buy $400 bags and drive $35k cars all the time.

I mean, i can go literally go on and on, watches, golf clubs, cameras, tablets, macbooks, drones, luxury vacations. Pretty much every luxury out there is more expensive than a $1000 console. And people spend on what they like every day.

Some people just have other priorities and more disposable income. What seems ridiculous to you can be perfectly worth it to others.

Only in gaming communities will i see people calling others names for wanting to buy a console. Its just a console, people need to relax

@johnedwin I mean not really. You can get one for half that that will outperform any console on the market today

@Deadlyblack even funner fact /s means I was sarcastically referring to the manner in which the so called master race over-egg their rig when discussing it online and then cross-referencing that with the dual 5090 set-up used by Nvidia when they debuted DLSS5 back in March this year… fun! 🥸

I have ben saying it was going to be $1500 or more.

@psmr DLSS5 is garbage anyways lol. People use it in-games and it just fries a GPU due to causing the GPU to overdraw wattage and frying itself in the process. Not worth frying components over making the picture look like dry raisins.

@LogicStrikesAgain Sure. And it's too early to give Microsoft credit here.

But, fact remains, there's hope for Xbox. No hope for PlayStation. So saying PlayStation is better in that regard doesn't make too much sense.

@Deadlyblack funner fact #2 - neither of my posts were actually pro DLSS5 😏

@Deadlyblack
Particularly not if you are using a 5090 which I understand has now been discontinued, or at the very least costs many thousands of pounds/dollars.

Edit: In response to the suggestion that DLSS5 could 'fry' a GPU. Ie particularly not (a good thing) if you are....

@8th_Observer I guess...

Dunno if they deserve much credit for coming out and saying it. If two people stole $1000 dollars from me (no, I'm not saying going all-digital is the equivalent to stealing), but one of them forewarned me, I wouldn't really feel any better about it

@psmr SLI is dead for pc gaming. Amd crossfire is dead too.

It's worth saying that a lot of console enthusiasts are following websites like this and responding to polls like this. So I'd imagination the percentage of people willing to pay $1000+ for a ps6 is considerably lower than 35%

@Rich33 Y'know how people are using DLSS5 in reshader to essentially add it to games that it doesn't support? If you crank the multiplier higher than like 10x it'll fry a GPU due to wattage, regardless if it's a 50 series or not due to the power draw.

@XenonKnight so after I’ve already explained my use of sarcasm and the reason for it, you still feel the need to tell me the same thing @Deadlyblack told me. You Master Race lot are an absolute riot fair play 🤣

Hahahahahahahaha 😆😆😆😂😂😂☠️☠️☠️

@RoomWithaMoose

So saying PlayStation is better in that regard doesn't make too much sense.

Well, only if you dont count current reality. Because currently they actually are better than most publishers in terms of dealing with physical releases. Since every first party game has a physical release and the full game is always on disc. And that’ll likely stay the same for the next 1.5 years.

Meanwhile, Xbox, and some other publishers have pretty much sucked in terms of physical releases, to put it bluntly.

So the more accurate way to frame it is, Sony is currently killing it in the physical department (pun intended), and will potentially in 1.5 year either be the worst, or just the same, depending on what Xbox decides to do

@Deadlyblack
I think you misunderstood me - I was meaning that if that is true (DLSS5 causing issues for GPU's and 'Frying' them), thats not a good thing.
People need to take very good care of their GPU's as they are very expensive to replace, and in particular, I believe 5090's have been discontinued, or now cost many thousands.

@Rich33 Oh yeah yeah, I getcha now. Yeah, it's definitely not a good thing lol and people definitely need to be careful when putting parts under extensive stress, especially with how expensive everything is.

@RoomWithaMoose We all want transparency, right? Hopefully the same who demand that are mature enough to cope with it when it's a decision they don't like. Personally, I'm much happier with a frank "Physical disc production is ending," versus the passive-aggressive disc-to-digital stuff.

Why not just wait for the actual announcement before spouting all the doom and gloom? Also, a lot of the current issue is MS’s fault.

@8th_Observer Well, it depends on the circumstance. Transparency is great, but doesn't absolve action. Look at the current US president for some of that dynamic.

The disc-to-digital program is also just...a good feature. It's definitely not a passive-aggressive alternative to Sony's bluntness. Indeed, it's far from a commitment to physical. But it leaves the opportunity for it.

@psmr I'm not a pc gamer. Dont disrespect me by calling me one. I reject the pc gaming community. Did you know the National Socialist are the ones who started the master race crap?

@LogicStrikesAgain Yeah. That's basically how I framed it in my first response to the golden god.

I'm just saying: saying Sony does physical BETTER than Microsoft entails ignoring the future reality that they will soon be doing NOTHING physical.

if there are no good ps6 exclusives released on the platform, then there is nothing to worry about. for the first 3-5 years on the market, all ps6 games are going to be cross gen with ps5. you can worry about the ps6 sticker shock in 2030 and beyond perhaps? and if there is a ps6 exclusive worth playing by that point in time, i have no doubt there will be a pc recomp released soon thereafter anyways thanks to AI

@XenonKnight they popularised it sure but it was originated prior to the Nazis… PC gamers made it ‘cool’ though 😉