Xbox fans got another shock last week as Microsoft was the latest video game company to announce hardware price increases, not decreases. Microsoft joins both Sony and Nintendo in increasing the pricing of video game hardware. Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra was quick to say on social media that the price increases we have been seeing on console a second time are “not tariff issues” and are instead “profit issues.” Speaking about Microsoft’s second price increase he said that “”Tariffs went up once so that does justify the single price increase,” he says while referring to the initial spike in cost. “An excuse to continue raising prices, with no new increase in tariffs, is simply a different problem and they are going to make consumers continue to pay for those problems.”
Former Blizzard president: “Console price increases are not tariff issues, they are profit issues”
Tarrifs did make things worse, but I’m now starting to think inflation is a big factor. I used to think it wasn’t that bad, but everything from housing, groceries, and general cost of living does add up, and people ask for more. Which is why we see everything including games and game consoles go up in price.
The cause being inflation should be an obvious thing. Games are only now going up in price after having been more or less the same price for decades. That’s despite them having way bigger teams and taking longer to make, all while the global economy ups the prices of wages, equipment, office buildings, shipping and manufacturing, etc. Obviously I don’t like paying more, but it shouldn’t be a shock to people at all that gaming stuff is going up on price just as much as everything else is
It isn’t inflation, it’s greed.
Let people comment, why is my comments not being shared
Maybe it sucked
Oftentimes comments don’t appear i think it’s because they get stuck in the spam filter, it happens on occasion.
WordPass.
Amazing that people are still only now realising that the endless need for profits in the ridiculous capitalist model is unsustainable and eventually ends in collapse. People can bury their head in the sand as long as it’s ok for them but you’re only prolonging the inevitable. At least one of the big players in the games industry will drop off in the next few years, at least in the form we’ve known them, and its looking like Xbox atm. Last in first out.
Video game consoles went up but the frequency of how often games come to these consoles hasnt went up. GTA 3 and Vice City was a year apart on PS2. GTA Vice City and Andreas fault were 2 years apart. Then the next one after that was 3 years apart. Then GTA 5 was 8 years later. Then GTA6 is 13 years later. Basically consumers are just buying more expensive hardware just to play games from older hardware with better visuals. Galaxy 1 and 2 Bundle for $70 yet buying a $250 Wii got you Galaxy 1 and 2. Pay more for hardware and get less sequels are none at all. So basically consumers are paying half a grand or morevto play 1 new sequel at a time. So Sony owners will need to buy a PS6 to play the next Rachet and Clank and Astro Bot 2. To play Banaza 2 you got to buy a a Switch 3. But back in the day one purchase of SNES got you DK1,2 and 3. So they need to pro long the consoles from 5 years to 12 years in order to get sequels again. But they wont because of greed.
That’s such an asinine thing to say. How can you even compare the development time and and cost from older consoles to the ones from now.
Did you even take into consideration that the team for GTA3 was less than 25 members? Fast forwards to GTAV that released in 2013 and that team is over 1000. That means that these 1000 people could’ve made 40 GTA’s back on those days for comparison.
Not to mention how much easier it was to develop back them compared to now. How much bigger games have gotten, and how much more expensive it is now.
Gaming is a luxury, if you can’t afford it, go play outside.
Glad he said it. Its not tarrifs it’s never been that these people are all looking to raise prices not just gaming all over but no one calls it out
The amount of Exclusives are more and more limited each generation on the PS and Xbox platforms, the reason this generation feels so new is because there are no games, or at least real newer ones. they already are thinking in the next generation for a 2027 launch… and for what? a remake, another remaster? Something tells me that we already touch the extreme of this economic model ( for the video gamaes market)
He’s talking about anything… is he aware that a company is there to make a profit…? and he’s a former CEO?!By the way, I did some research and if we adjust the current price for the inflation of 2025, the price of consoles has hardly changed, or even decreased… for Nintendo, the most expensive console would have been the Wii U in 2025 (yes, more than the Switch 2 and I’m not even talking about Sony and its PS3)
This isn’t just about videogames. Capitalism is failing and greedy people at the the top will keep trying to become richer and richer. It’s an unsustainable society that is crumbling in front of our eyes. The rich are getting richer the poor are getting poorer, that’s a fact.
So true. Every now and then, the poor will continue to be poor and the rich will continue to be richer as usual. People know by the fact that gaming products will continue to increase its price range. Now target and amazon will increase their prices as well for the products they are selling including Nintendo products.
It’s not ONLY tariffs, but tariffs are a big reason and are indeed the main reason.
Yeah , and the cost of electricity , labour , and taxes are the same as 3yago … Its time that people understand that EVERY business` costs went up !!!
Many rich people continues to be richer and richer and they will act like tariffs is no big deal to them which is a big deal to everyone who is poor and not popular. Everything will continue to be more expensive later on including gaming products and accessories. This is something that people are not extremely happy about the Switch 2 price and it’s accessories.
If only we were still on the Gold Standard. TTG says that all our problems would be solved if we were
So it’s a terrif problem, and they want to make more money cus of it…… Just be honest.
Ybarra, tone deaf as usual, doesn’t understand that the two concepts aren’t mutually exclusive. And he clearly also doesn’t understand that corporate greed has run unchecked for many years now.