Will South Africa Skip The 8th Console Gen?

[Theweasel]

Stores are becoming obsolete altogether, as everyone is moving towards ordering their media online or buying digital.

And no, we're not skipping anything. Just because there is a big market for previous gen, doesn't mean that there's no take-up for current gen. During the previous gen, PS2 was still huge. The same thing is happening now. People are just waiting for prices to drop more...

Exactly, That's what I realized.

No one can afford 6k for a console,only a few

 

[ponder]

No one can afford 6k for a console,only a few

contradiction

 

[Theweasel]

contradiction

 

[PoppieChoffel]

Cost is definitely prohibitive in SA. I bought my Xbox One for R4500 in SA last year, the 500gb model with just Gears of War included. In September 2017 I went to Germany a few days for work and they were selling the Xbox One S 1TB with any two games of your choice for €250. Even with the exchange rate it still worked out under R4000. I wanted to get me one but I was worried customs would nail me on the way back into SA.

Don't even get me started on Nintendo products. How can they justify R6000 for a Nintendo Switch? It kinda works out if you directly convert using the exchange rate, but that doesn't take buying power into account at all. R6000 does not have the same buying power as €300 does in the EU. If you take actual buying power into account we should not be paying more than R4000 for a Switch. When you convert from dollar it is even worse. Then we're overpaying more than R2000.

Keep in mind what also adds to cost for us here in SA is physically getting these things here. For EUR market they have multiple flight options and far further to traverse - SAA charges premium for airfreight cargo space, and have limited flights inbound from UK (where most of our gaming stock comes from), pushing that cost up even further. Sea freight, while much cheaper, is usually not an option, because then you are missing street dates. Add to that the ridiculous landside charges associated here with clearing, cargo duties, customs checks, and then local labour and distribution charges, you start to get an idea of why costs in SA are not "in line". And US isn't PAL, we get all of our hardware and software from EUR, so a $ conversion will never hold.

Re Nintendo, it's distributed by the same company who handles Apple here, so you shouldn't expect anything less than premium price points. And sadly, Ninty as a company worldwide have just never actually been price competitive. Nor do they do what other console manufacturers do and drop prices a few years after launch. That works fine for them internationally where Ninty have a fairly large loyal following, but here it hurts the brand.

 

[PoppieChoffel]

Most of the friends I know are XBO or PS4 owners. Quite a few of them own more than one gaming system, usually a combo of a console and a PC. I don't think SA has "skipped" this generation at all. And yeah, as mentioned by others, those gaming sections in B & M are shrinking because a lot of gamers these days are going digital for all but Limited / Collector's Editions.

 

[ArtyLoop]

Re Nintendo, it's distributed by the same company who handles Apple here, so you shouldn't expect anything less than premium price points. And sadly, Ninty as a company worldwide have just never actually been price competitive. Nor do they do what other console manufacturers do and drop prices a few years after launch. That works fine for them internationally where Ninty have a fairly large loyal following, but here it hurts the brand.

Ah so Core is also involved with Nintendo???.. Hmm.. then I guess I shall be importing my next Nintendo console then, considering they had the gall to increase the price by R1k from last year... Fugging idiots!

 

[PoppieChoffel]

Ah so Core is also involved with Nintendo???.. Hmm.. then I guess I shall be importing my next Nintendo console then, considering they had the gall to increase the price by R1k from last year... Fugging idiots!

There is no local Nintendo presence, not directly. They are not "also" involved, they are the official SA distributor. And, in their defense re increase, exchange rate went for a ball of S so no surprise there.

 

[ArtyLoop]

There is no local Nintendo presence, not directly. They are not "also" involved, they are the official SA distributor. And, in their defense re increase, exchange rate went for a ball of S so no surprise there.

Sorry... with import taxes and shipping, landed mine for approiximately R1460 less than the current local retail price...
We bought it yesterday, should be here next week sometime

 

[PoppieChoffel]

Sorry... with import taxes and shipping, landed mine for approiximately R1460 less than the current local retail price...
We bought it yesterday, should be here next week sometime

Nice! Which games will you be getting along with it, or are you doing eShop?

 

[ArtyLoop]

Nice! Which games will you be getting along with it, or are you doing eShop?

eShop... getting Sonic Forces because I have plans to get rid of the desktop PC and Windows, replacing it with the Macbook Pro I already have and use..

 

[Pitbull]

Trick is to time the sale of your previous gen console in such a way that you get maximum amount you can and adding a bit for the next gen. With no word yet on PS5 and a date, I will keep the PS4 till such a time that a launch date is confirmed. Then sell the PS4 immediately. Add a few buck a couple of months later and buy the PS5.

However, with the current price of games, I don't think I'll buy a PS5 unless it's backwards compatible. Laaitie has something like 12 games or so at an average price of R 800 each... That's just shy of R 10k worth of game.

 

[Lupus]

Trick is to time the sale of your previous gen console in such a way that you get maximum amount you can and adding a bit for the next gen. With no word yet on PS5 and a date, I will keep the PS4 till such a time that a launch date is confirmed. Then sell the PS4 immediately. Add a few buck a couple of months later and buy the PS5.

However, with the current price of games, I don't think I'll buy a PS5 unless it's backwards compatible. Laaitie has something like 12 games or so at an average price of R 800 each... That's just shy of R 10k worth of game.

Sony won't have it BC, you can have the chance of playing your previous games via a remaster, that you have to buy again. And that's 10k if you bought new, if you bought 2nd hand or on sales it would be roughly 3000 to 5000k.
One of the reasons I liked the move to Xbox One, 90% of my 360 titles were BC compatible and now even some Xbox originals.

 

[Pitbull]

Sony won't have it BC, you can have the chance of playing your previous games via a remaster, that you have to buy again. And that's 10k if you bought new, if you bought 2nd hand or on sales it would be roughly 3000 to 5000k.
One of the reasons I liked the move to Xbox One, 90% of my 360 titles were BC compatible and now even some Xbox originals.

This will be the sole reason of me not buying a PS5. I would rather just build the laaitie a new PC then ever few years instead. He can play PS4 till he's out of the house in 10 years or so

 

[Splinter]

I think the 80 million plus PS4 consoles sold so far, and still selling in the millions every quarter, sort of puts paid to any suggestion that console sales are diminishing...

 

[Pitbull]

I think the 80 million plus PS4 consoles sold so far, and still selling in the millions every quarter, sort of puts paid to any suggestion that console sales are diminishing...

It's not, but it's very close to reaching the point where you either buy/build a PC or buy a console. For the money I spent on the PS4, I could have build the laaitie a PC and kept it up to considering the price we pay for games. I can only assume that PS5 games will be priced accordingly thus making PC gaming cheaper in the long run. PC games are dirt cheap compared to PS games, even digital copies on PSN. Given, AAA titles are just as expensive on launch (PC) they do tend to drop in price pretty quickly from launch. PS games don't seem to have the same depreciation when it comes to AAA titles.

 

[Lupus]

It's not, but it's very close to reaching the point where you either buy/build a PC or buy a console. For the money I spent on the PS4, I could have build the laaitie a PC and kept it up to considering the price we pay for games. I can only assume that PS5 games will be priced accordingly thus making PC gaming cheaper in the long run. PC games are dirt cheap compared to PS games, even digital copies on PSN. Given, AAA titles are just as expensive on launch (PC) they do tend to drop in price pretty quickly from launch. PS games don't seem to have the same depreciation when it comes to AAA titles.

You've got to look at specials or second hand for console games, that's always been the case .

 

[Pitbull]

You've got to look at specials or second hand for console games, that's always been the case .

Very true. Just AAA titles don't seem to be flooding the second hand market. Unless it's way past it's heyday The issue I have with second hand games is you get what is on offer. Not like, walking into a second hand dealer and expecting to find RDR2 now for R 500 as an example... So you need to buy what is on offer, not really what you wanted to get in the first place. If that makes any sense.

 

[Splinter]

It's not, but it's very close to reaching the point where you either buy/build a PC or buy a console. For the money I spent on the PS4, I could have build the laaitie a PC and kept it up to considering the price we pay for games. I can only assume that PS5 games will be priced accordingly thus making PC gaming cheaper in the long run. PC games are dirt cheap compared to PS games, even digital copies on PSN. Given, AAA titles are just as expensive on launch (PC) they do tend to drop in price pretty quickly from launch. PS games don't seem to have the same depreciation when it comes to AAA titles.

When a decent mid-range GPU costs about the same as a console, I think console sales are pretty safe into the future...

 

[ponder]

When a decent mid-range GPU costs about the same as a console, I think console sales are pretty safe into the future...

Most people have a laptop or pc they use for things other than gaming. A decent pc minus gpu can be built for relatively cheap compared to those prebuilt office pcs you see in stores. A gpu is the cost of a few games or a console so wheter you have a console + office pc or just a gaming pc it's much of a muchness in price. Granted not everybody wants to build a pc.

 

[Splinter]

Most people have a laptop or pc they use for things other than gaming. A decent pc minus gpu can be built for relatively cheap compared to those prebuilt office pcs you see in stores. A gpu is the cost of a few games or a console so wheter you have a console + office pc or just a gaming pc it's much of a muchness in price. Granted not everybody wants to build a pc.

Yah, but I think we were talking about gaming here. With a smart TV factored in you don't even need a PC for internet browsing, Youtube etc.