For decades, gamers had good reasons to wait before buying a new console. Launch prices were high, game libraries were limited, and waiting a few years often meant choosing the “winning” console with better exclusives and third-party support. Most importantly, consoles consistently became cheaper over time, making patience a financially smart decision.
From the Atari VCS through the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, nearly every console generation saw significant price cuts and hardware redesigns. These revisions often brought technical improvements, such as smaller form factors and better heat management, and they sometimes removed underused features. These upgrades made the later versions more attractive than the launch models.
However, that long-standing pattern has recently changed. The last major console price cut occurred in 2016 with the PS4 Slim. Since then, rather than getting cheaper, some consoles have actually become more expensive. Examples include the OLED Switch, a disc-less PS5 with a $50 price hike, and even higher prices for unchanged Xbox Series models.
Rising Costs and Slowing Chip Advances Are Reshaping Console Pricing and Upgrade Strategies
Several forces are driving these unexpected price hikes: global inflation, supply chain disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, volatile trade policies, and a shift in strategy where console makers no longer sell hardware at a loss. Profitability and shareholder expectations now outweigh the previous model of subsidizing consoles through game sales.
Why Waiting to Buy a Console No Longer Pays Off in the Post-Moore’s Law EraA major technical reason for this shift is the stagnation of Moore’s Law—the prediction that transistor counts would double roughly every two years. For decades, improvements in chip manufacturing followed this trend, enabling smaller, more powerful, and cheaper hardware. But that era of consistent, fast progress is now slowing down.
Historically, console makers could shrink chips to reduce power usage, cut heat output, and reduce size and cost. These benefits enabled slim redesigns and cheaper production. While new processors would usually leverage die shrinks to boost performance, consoles used the same power savings to streamline their design without changing capabilities—perfect for their fixed-hardware model.
Shrinking Chips Once Drove Prices Down, but That Era Is Slowing Dramatically Now
Past consoles saw major benefits from die shrinks. The PS2 dropped from $299 to $129 thanks to internal consolidation and the removal of less-used parts. Similarly, the Xbox 360 saw its power needs plummet while transitioning from large, hot chips to smaller, cooler ones, culminating in fixes for notorious issues like the red ring of death.
Die shrinks not only improved chips but also reduced costs across a console’s entire hardware design: smaller motherboards, smaller power supplies, and less complex cooling systems. These efficiencies translated to smaller enclosures and lighter devices, making manufacturing and shipping more economical—benefits that were passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices.
During the PS4 and Xbox One era, this shrinking trend continued but began to slow. Die shrinks still happened, but they were more incremental and less impactful. The PS5 and Xbox Series consoles have seen even fewer and less significant revisions, and now that prices are rising instead of falling, the old incentives for waiting to buy no longer apply.
Recognizing the shift in how consoles are priced and updated, the author has preordered a Nintendo Switch 2—their first-ever purchase on launch day. With slim chances of future price cuts or significant hardware revisions, the old strategy of waiting appears less practical. In today’s market, delaying a purchase could result in paying more later for the same—or even downgraded—hardware.
