Video Game Hardware Sales Had a Historically Bad November In the US (theverge.com) 74
U.S. video game hardware spending fell 27% year over year in November to $695 million, according to market analyst company Circana. "This is the lowest video game hardware spending total for a November month since the $455 million reached during the November 2005 tracking period," Circana says. Furthermore, only 1.6 million units of hardware were sold in the U.S. in November, which is "the lowest total for a November month since 1995 (1.4 million)." The Verge reports: The rising costs of consoles probably didn't help. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series of consoles both turned five in November, but customers looking to pick up one of the consoles brand new are having to grapple with higher prices following price hikes this year. Those hikes have led to an "all-time November high" for the average price paid for a new unit of video game hardware of $439, Circana says -- a number that's up 11 percent from 2024. (In November 2019, the average price was $235, according to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella.)
The PC will follow suit (Score:2)
It'll be interesting to know if people spend more on games over the next year while hardware prices are high.
Re: (Score:2)
It'll be interesting to know if people spend more on games over the next year while hardware prices are high.
Uh, the PC will follow suit?
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series of consoles both turned five in November..
You'd have to get Microsoft to actually support the damn hardware that long first. 5 years is 2 years longer than Microsoft wants to wait. Only reason they tolerate it with gaming consoles is because they can easily convince gamers that 5-year old hardware is cutting edge while charging more.
Put a 5-year old desktop on display charging latest-n-greatest prices and you'd probably be mocked relentlessly.
Re:The PC will follow suit (Score:5, Interesting)
It'll be interesting to know if people spend more on games over the next year while hardware prices are high.
Uh, the PC will follow suit?
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series of consoles both turned five in November..
You'd have to get Microsoft to actually support the damn hardware that long first. 5 years is 2 years longer than Microsoft wants to wait. Only reason they tolerate it with gaming consoles is because they can easily convince gamers that 5-year old hardware is cutting edge while charging more.
Put a 5-year old desktop on display charging latest-n-greatest prices and you'd probably be mocked relentlessly.
Yep, PC hardware might have had a bad november in the US but not because people are losing interest in PC gaming, people are losing interest in Console gaming which is to say, people are realising they're being nickel and dime'd for console gaming and have had enough now that consoles are approaching the price of entry level gaming PCs without half the features and all of the downsides.
PC hardware will take a hit for one simple reason. RAM prices (due to the AI bubble).
Also remember that we're due for some big releases soon, the Steam Machine in Feb (I think) and there's bound to be a new Nvidia generation out soon.
Finally, there is an economic downturn in the US... This means people start belt tightening and deferring a lot of purchases they don't need. A new console or laptop is one of said purchases, you can't eat an Xbox.
Re: (Score:2)
PC hardware will take a hit for one simple reason. RAM prices (due to the AI bubble).
That is a simplistic single variable (technically 3 variable) view of a very fucked multi-variable scenario.
Yes RAM prices are high, however that is just making and already shittacular year for sales worse than it already was. We have hardware prices raised thanks to tariffs (globally, thanks to Microsoft distributing the loss in profits and not just passing them off to Americans alone ... in a way Trump was right that other people are paying *throws up*), we have had a truly shit year when it comes to AAA
Re: (Score:2)
you can't eat an Xbox.
Not with that attitude. Would you like some spices to help in your efforts? ;)
Re: (Score:2)
It'll be interesting to know if people spend more on games over the next year while hardware prices are high.
Possibly. Just consider the impact of RAM prices, to the AI providers .
Used (Score:4)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, this is not knew. I look at my son's games on his desktop, with his RTX4070, 32 gig of ram, his 2K monitor, & I just do not see the graphics much better, if at all, than 15 years ago. I was playing one of the Wolfenstein games, a game that cost me around $20, & my nephew was amazed over the graphics & wanted to know what I was playing.
$1000 for a video card one would expect that the graphics would be advancing better. Fallout 4 was choppy using a RTX970. Upgrading it to a 2070 made it
Re: Used (Score:2)
24 out of those 32 gigs of ram is probably needed to run Windows alone
Re: Used (Score:2)
Now that I've loaded up with new black Friday specials, I will certainly encourage to buy used when possible.
Re: (Score:2)
Fallout 4 is just a total conversion mod for Skyrim. Its graphics couldn't be that great by definition.
Re: (Score:2)
Okay. Funny how it ran so choppy without reducing the graphics quality. Skyrim ran like a champ on a lot older hardware & looked okay back in the day.
Re: (Score:2)
This is not what I remember. I had to buy a new GPU for Skyrim.
Re: (Score:3)
All the games I want for the next 10 years are available on the PS4. A long time ago I realized that used video game consoles were still as good as the day they were released yet they are a quarter of the price. My kids buy new games yet when they saw me playing my 10 year old game they complemented on how nice the game was. I guess graphics haven't come that far.
Similar to TV that way. Graphics are overblown.
When digital and hi-def TV came out, I was like "eh, seeing the actors' pores isn't going to improve anything. Good plots and characterization would." And so it is with games as well.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: Used (Score:4, Funny)
It causes a rude audience and sticky floors?
Re: (Score:2)
I dunno, I've been really enjoying watching old movies from 20+ years ago in 4k. I can finally see everything in the background, it's a big improvement. Never mind I own a 4k projector and a big wall to use it on so anything less than 1080p looks junky nowadays.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What movie has things happening in the background in that deal that matters to the story?
I can't think of any off the top of my head although I'm sure there are a few out there.
I'm surprised some one would ask that question though. Why does the background have to be immediately pertinent to the plot to have value? Lots of movies have really amazing sets and props that I appreciate both for aesthetics and for setting the tone for what I'm watching. If I'm watching one of the classic Star Wars movies for instance I want to see all those blinking lights, aliens, and imperial officers doing their
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sticking with Star Wars I just recently watched the Harmy release of a 4k despecialized Return of the Jedi which is why Star Wars came to mind for this conversation. Like tons of folks I grew up watching this movie over and over again on VHS as a kid and that low resolution release is where all my memories of the movie more or less come from as I only saw it once in the theater when I was super young versus dozens of times on VHS (I avoided watching the higher resolution special edition).
Let me tell you, I
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Really only as a kid, lots of kids do that. As an adult it's more like if it was something I enjoy a lot I'll go back and watch it 20 years later. I've got a Plex server with over 3,000 titles on it so I watch new stuff too :)
Re: (Score:2)
I dunno, I've been really enjoying watching old movies from 20+ years ago in 4k. I can finally see everything in the background, it's a big improvement. Never mind I own a 4k projector and a big wall to use it on so anything less than 1080p looks junky nowadays.
Ah, well, with a huge screen I imagine it might matter more, yeah :)
That's another thing I've never got into. Our living room and bedroom are small-ish, or medium-ish at most; I really can't imagine using a huge TV screen in them. I never really understood the whole "cover your wall with a TV screen" thing :D
Re: Used (Score:2)
Dual Shock 4 controllers are getting quite expensive though, a friend of mine is looking to buy a new one and they are twice the price as I saw them a few months ago.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Used (Score:2)
The key is th way a long time beteeen upgrades. We just got a PS5 (not hooked up yet). My last console was a PS2. In comparison, the graphics and everything else should be amazing.
Re: Used (Score:2)
*Complimented.
Will violence drop? (Score:4, Interesting)
Anyone remember the fact that video games cause violence?
Re: Will violence drop? (Score:3)
Have you noticed how much video games Koreans play?
Re: (Score:3)
Not to mention Kilngons!
Re: (Score:2)
Which Americans, specifically?
Re: Will violence drop? (Score:2)
Not a fact.
Not even reality.
Re: Will violence drop? (Score:2)
Remember when it was as much of a fact as social media causing mental illness or AI hallucinating everything?
Re: (Score:2)
Violence in America has decreased dramatically since video games came on the scene. Given that it doesn't seem terribly likely that they actually cause violence.
And it will get worse (Score:3)
With the AI sucking all GPUs first and now RAM and SSD chips, hardware will get more expensive. And software pricing does not help. Yesterday I was browsing my Steam wrapped, and I only played 2% of games released in 2025. With new AAA games costing 80â or more (because of game passes and the like), I prefer playing grames from my backlog or buying good old games in sale.
Re: (Score:2)
Were you actually cost conscious or were you finding the joy of playing things from other years? I ask because I actually bought quite a few games this year, and so far having played only 2 of them, both indie titles, instead being enthralled by games released in 2023 and 2024.
I ask because even if you are cost conscious that isn't a reason for the 2%. Nearly all titles released this year were not AAA. Nearly all titles released this year did not cost $80. There's so many awesome games out there when you st
Re: (Score:2)
I still play SMAC/X (Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri) at least once a week, even if it's just jumping on for a few minutes to run through a couple turns.
Including a Map, Factions, and Scenario editors helps keep old games fresh.
Re: (Score:2)
In the pass 15 years or so I have only bought one game on release day.
Dwarf Fortress (but I have been playing the ascii version for years by the time it was on Steam). And maybe a couple of other indie games, cant recall off hand.
Otherwise, most games are 6 months or later. Or games like skyrim was about 10 years later (got the anniversary? special edition? whatever was the latest) on a sale.
I did get a couple of DLCs for X4: Foundations on release day, but otherwise, everyone else can wait a while before I
Seems reasonable (Score:5, Insightful)
There's just a stack of pressures against hardware sales. The press has been brutal.
- Higher hardware prices
- Microsoft seeming to lose interest in the XBox
- High profile flops
- Triple-A cancellations
- 5 year into current hardware for PS5/XBox - if you want one you probably have it
- Rising economic and financial uncertainty
- Incoming generations used to small format gaming
- Cost of living already too high for Gen Z, and not getting better.
I've got a Series X, and I suspect it's the last console I'll own. And I've had consoles since I used a Coleco Telstar to burn bars into the phosphor on a TV in the late 70s. I'm aging out - and I'm taking my money with me.
And honestly, I really bailed a couple of years ago. I had the MS Game Pass for a while, but I haven't bought a major title in at least three years, and I haven't spent a dime on XBox-related anything in 2025. The last thing I actually played on Game Pass was a 15 year old platformer called "Limbo".
Re: (Score:2)
I've had consoles since I used a Coleco Telstar to burn bars into the phosphor on a TV in the late 70s.
That was my first console as well, except I got it in the 80s. I had the really big white contoured one.
Gaming consoles just don't offer what they used to. It used to be they did things your PC couldn't. Now they're just a slightly discounted PC you're not allowed to run whatever you want on.
Re:Seems reasonable (Score:5, Interesting)
The other thing is plenty of people who were console gamers in their childhood through college maybe find that as they get older, they have different interests or different things taking time. Games always took a LOT of time, and as everything got more multiplayer they got less and less "fun" if you didn't have a LOT of time to get decent at them, because you're going to be compared to teenagers who make them a full time job.
I hung on through the PS3 and got a PS4 because I still wanted to be "a gamer", but after I hadn't turned on my PS4 for 3 years, I just... didn't get a PS5.
Maybe that's what you mean by aging out - though I question if console games are something that are that driven by age in the way some competitive sports might be.
Re: (Score:2)
For me who started gaming the early rad 80s, it is the lack of resources like time, interest, energy, etc. I just play quick games when I can. I have lots of old games that I got for free from giveaways and others. Why bother paying?
Hardware inflation (Score:2)
The only reason why we need new hardware these days is because the game studios are prioritising the speed of development and can't be arsed optimising their code.
- Hey, our engine is laggy.
- Just bump the requirements, mate.
In the old times, video games were art - both in terms of ingenuity, art and code. The developers of old would try to squeeze as much as they could out of available hardware, and make their games run on as little resources as possible.
These days, no one gives a crap. It's all about dish
Re: (Score:2)
Even more so now the xbox and PS5 are just PCs in a fancy case as they can use more or less the exact same libraries and GPU code. If it works on a high spec PC then ship it for console with some graphics detail dialled down, job done.
GabeCube effect (Score:2)
I'm guessing this has something to do with the announcement of the GabeCube.
Re: (Score:3)
According to VGChartz the Switch has YTD sales of 12,477,026 compared to 14,233,301 for the PS5, which had six additional months of sales.
That's a lot of people who don't need to buy a Switch 2 for Christmas because they already bought one a few months ago.
Funny (Score:1)
I bought 15 ps5 games last month.
Several times more games than I've ever bought before in my life.
I did my share!
Re: Funny (Score:1)
Misread article. Didn't realize it was about hardware. My bad.
VR Consoles? (Score:2)
Good (Score:1)
The amount of adults I see wasting their lives away playing video games or digital hoarding is depressing.
Re: (Score:2)
The amount of adults I see wasting their lives away playing video games or digital hoarding is depressing.
How about you spend more time minding your own business, and less time assuming you know what other people are doing? I work my 50+ hours/week. I have "productive" hobbies. I keep a home. I contribute to society. I raised kids into functioning adults. If I want to sit on my ass in front of the tube once in a while who the heck are you to judge? If you were to look at my usage you'd probably assume I was another one of those adults wasting their lives away, but that's about as far from the truth as can be.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Waiting– (Score:2)
to see hardware specs for Elderscrolls VI and Cyberpunk Orion.
The whole economy got its ass kicked (Score:3, Interesting)
Traditionally we get 8 years of Democrats fixing Republican malfeasance. We didn't get that this time we barely got 4 years and two of those for the Republicans were heavily sabotaging anything the Democrats did.
So buckle up it is going to be a rough three years and it's entirely possible Trump's getting a third term.
And you see I told you so everything (Score:1)
Is collapsing because of the right wing led by that orange turd. Collapsing before our eyes. But nobody at all notice but me because people can't see clearly because people are unable of critical thinking. It's like how we blame cell phones on everything wrong with kids and not the ludicrous amounts of pressure we're putting on them because we know the entire economy and job market is collapsing and there aren't going to be enough jobs available for the number of people capable of working them so we're all
Re: (Score:2)
Like it or not, people respond very positively to trash talk. Every time Trump resorts to name-calling like a toddler, people love him for it.
Not my thing, of course, but it's not like my vote mattered in the last election.
Re: (Score:2)
Traditionally we get 8 years of Democrats fixing Republican malfeasance.
Give it a break bro. The Democrats are a fully own subsidiary of the Military Industrial Complex. They aren't fixing shit; they are merely not doing as bad of a job as the Republicans. (in some ways, they are even worse than the Republicans because they pretend to be your friend sometimes)
Too expensive. (Score:2)
Current gen consoles are too damn expensive to appeal to their usual customer base. When a portable premium tablet with 16+GB of RAM and .5 TB of storage costs less than a meager video-game console that isn't portable and requires a screen to be useful, then the console market has clearly painted itself into a corner. I have no pity for either PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo at this point.
Make consoles affordable again, then sales will go up again. It's that simple. Meanwhile, I'm glad that at least Xbox is b
Re: (Score:1)
Correction, it's not too expensive. Adjusted for inflation they line up with the past. The problem is we have less money! A continuing trend until people realize their wages are being stolen...
Re: (Score:2)
Diminishing returns (Score:3)
One problem is that we are deep into diminishing returns on gaming hardware. Rewind 30 years and game hardware was developing at a breakneck pace. There was a huge difference between last year's console and this year's. Consoles like the N64 were an absolute revelation compared to the Super Nintendo. It wasn't just that the games looked prettier- the technology allowed a fundamental alteration of the game play with the ability to allow open worlds and much more developed storytelling. However, by the late 00s, consoles and the games they ran had all of the features we associate with gaming today- online play, large open worlds, etc.
What we have gotten since the release of the PS3/Xbox 360 era has just been incremental improvements in graphics quality. However, even those are starting to become much less meaningful. Going from a PS2 to a PS3 was an absolutely massive upgrade in graphics quality. The PS4 to PS5... not so much. The value proposition of spending a bunch of money for a slight increase in graphics quality just isn't there for most folks.
Frankly, the problem is even worse in PC gaming where the costs for just a GPU exceed the cost of an entire console. You'll spend $1k just to turn on a bit of eye candy that you will barely notice. The issue is that it takes exponentially more computing power to add just a bit of extra detail to a 3d rendered environment. At some point, it doesn't improve the experience anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
The value proposition of spending a bunch of money for a slight increase in graphics quality just isn't there for most folks.
The value proposition in a console has never been in the graphics, it's always been in the games. You bought the N64 not because it was 3D, but because you couldn't play Mario 64 on your SNES. You talk about the jump from PS2 to PS3 ... well the PS2 outsold the PS3.
On PC where hardware capability is variable for the same released games it's a different story, where better hardware = better graphics for the same games. But on consoles the games dictate the console not the graphics quality.
Re: (Score:2)
No, I very distinctly remember buying Mario 64 because it was 3D. My point is that it used to be these hardware jumps fundamentally impacted gameplay. They simply don't anymore. Each jump was smaller than the one before it. PS2 to PS3 was a big jump compared to today, but it was far less than the jump from PS1 to PS2, and even that was far less of a jump from C64 to NES.
By the way, the original C64 cost more than double what the latest and greatest PS5 costs adjusted for inflation.