Netflix's President of Games, Alain Tascan, is expecting a future generation that relies less on gaming consoles as major players like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo push forward with new hardware.
I mean, is it that? Or are electronics getting to an unattainable price point? What 8 year old has $400+ for a console and $60 per game? Sure, parents will buy it, but it’s out of range for many.
That too, but also console gens aren’t what they used to be. What has the current gen done to justify itself beyond the prior gen?
The PS5 is basically PS4 Pro 2. Meh.
Where’s the excitement? We don’t have the graphical or storytelling upgrades of the past anymore. What is going to be incredible and new abiht the next generation? Probably not much.
Reminds me of the story from the other day about how 80%? of hours spent playing PC games are on titles more than 6 years old.
Hell, I just upgraded my video card for the first time in seven years, but the reason I did it was mainly due to factors like avoiding increased future costs due to tariffs and wanting modern API support for stuff like raytracing and experimenting with LLMs, not because there was some particular new game I had in mind that required it.
I quit consoles after the PS3/Wii/360, but even I recognize the PS5 is a MASSIVE upgrade to even a PS4 Pro with a SSD installed. Framerates and load times are insanely better on the PS5.
Your comment is what I’m getting at. It’s not the same anymore. Instead it’s like getting a new PC graphics card and finally being able to turn up the settings on mostly the same games.
However, the switch is only $300. It’s raised prices ~$100 in 40 years. Versus the PlayStation started at $300 in 95, and is up to $500. $200 in 30 years.
I understand your comparison, but some companies have extended the starting price more than others.
What I find interesting is they never adjust for inflation wages. Like if you were making $60k a year in 1885. What would that be in today’s money? That would be $178k. Or 118k for 40k in 1985. My question to everyone. are you making the 2025 values?
Your comment through me for a loop, initially I was thinking that due to changing baskets for calculating CPI/inflation that would account for wages, but that’s really just cost for basic goods shifting. So I looked it up and found out there is the ECI (Employment Cost Index) which is tracking “inflation” for labor.
This site has the chart of CPI vs ECI and, not too surprisingly, they move mostly in unison. The chart does diverge from what I would expect (costs out pacing wages), but haven’t had enough time to read into it.
Very true random selection of a secretary for a woman in 1985 would have been 16k and would translate to 47k in 2025. My point being when they show how expensive stuff was they never show what wages would be if adjusted. Not the person on this thread but when journalists do it they never want to show that value to show how screwed some people are. As they see they are still making the 1985 wage in the year 2025.
bottom line, yes it’s true, but also at the same time, luxury costs have been fairly consistant. People make more money, but housing, food, vehicle expenses go up, at the end of it, they have about the same amount left for entertainment today as they did 20 years ago. bottom line the increases to what we have to buy has left no room for growth in spending on what we want to buy.
On the one hand, I agree that consoles get less relevant and important with each new generation. On the other hand, Netflix gaming isn’t what kids care about.
Most kids I know play Roblox, minecraft and fortnite on underpowered PCs.
They don’t care about the new GPU launches either because even average home PCs play these games.
Yeah my 15yo son is running an early i7 with DDR3 and a 1660ti at 1080/60 and he plays Roblox and chats with his friends on Discord, watches YouTube. He doesn’t care about upgrades at all and never spends money or buys games or anything.
True, if I look at my own kids. The eldest doesn’t use their PS5, the PC is connected to the big screen. The middle one only uses their PS4 Pro to watch Youtube.
All gaming is done on PC.
Us parents are console gamers only so it’s definitely not influencing on our side.
My 7yo is the heaviest user of our PS5 but he pretty much only plays Fortnite on it and plays everything else on his switch.
I think the convenience of switch and mobile games are something that todays kids have that we really didn’t have and that’s why Netflix is saying this.
Damn I am glad every day I cancelled this shit, and I started as a customer back in under “please mail me DVDs” phase. This company has completely lost itself.
Yup, was a customer from DVD mailing days up to a few price hikes ago. Now I use Real-Debrid with Stremio for a few bucks a month and laugh every time there’s another price hike.
Eight year olds also don’t have any money. I’m a grown ass adult and can afford to PS6 if it’s compelling enough. Also, none of those Netflix games are interesting.
Some games (I think Bloons 6 might be one of them) are available on the play store as a Netflix version which is just the paid version supported by a Netflix subscription.
They published some interesting mobile ones. And then figure out the crappy slop based on their TV shows actually does better, so they are going all-in on that.
Then why aren’t they getting jobs to support this claim? The number of 8 years olds with a credit card is STILL zero and it’s 2025. Aren’t they in interested in building their credit?
I know the headline says PlayStation, but this whole thread is ignoring the Nintendo Switch. For every PS5 sold, two Nintendo Switches were sold. Maybe PlayStation and Xbox are on the decline, but the Switch is nearly the bestselling console of all time (the PS2 is still in the lead and will likely hold that title.)
Also when it comes to MUST HAVE games, Nintendo has so many of those to choose from. Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Smash Bros, the list goes on.
Nintendo has absolutely dominated the console market and this article seems to just ignore that.
I don’t have a lot of experience, but the one 6 year old I’m around the most sure is obsessed with the PS5. I’m sure “Netflix” here means “rich board members” who typically know fuck all about their investments.
It’s so hard. I have an N64, Wii, Wii U, Switch, PS5. The N64, Wii and Wii U have every game available on them. Switch and PS5 have decent libraries.
I set a laptop up with emulators of the main consoles before N64 (Nintendo/Sega/Handhelds etc) with the top 100 games of each, all in a nice emulation station interface with box art and video previews, and my personal favourites favourited. I set up steam family sharing with my library of 500 games (with inappropriate ones filtered out but still massive).
Didn’t ever buy them an ipad/tablet and never let them use my phone. Taught them how to use all of the things mentioned. Commonly play couch multiplayer games on these things with them. They’re not bad at games either. Beat Celeste, Undertale, Super Metroid as a few examples.
And YET I’ll still find my kids on the laptop playing rubbish flash games and shit, or asking their Nan to let them play on her phone.
Ah, good for you for trying!! I’m sure it’s hard, those trash games are made to be addictive…as have games always been really, but the evil was hidden better and they didn’t have the ability to track your every move.
My problem is at least other games have some benefits. Hand eye coordination, reflexes, critical thinking, problem solving skills, reading and comprehension skills.
Mobile games are designed to be as simple, accessible and most importantly easy as possible. They want you to feel like you’re winning over and over and over with no real effort on your part. Obviously there are some exceptions, but still.
even if the games suck they can still be an important social connection
my parents never let me watch any of the “bad” tv that all the other kids were watching and this made it even harder for me to connect and make friends
and it also meant I never got the opportunity to decide to understand and experience for myself why these shows were bad
same can probably be said for the shitty mobile games tbh
maybe they’re more predatory than all that advertising directed at kids via tv back in my day but idk by how much really if you’re actively teaching your kids about what predatory practices look like
they have to learn, better for them to understand how to fight this stuff when they’re younger rather than when they get in over their heads gambling on counterstrike skins as teenagers
For sure. I’ve never outright banned it if they get access such as from their nan or play them on their laptop when they have time on it. I agree with everything you said. I’m just also not going to let them sit on my phone mindlessly playing them either.
Those apps make them want to pay. They make them want to play every X amount of time to get daily and timed bonuses. They play stupid ads that convince them to download more shitty games that do the same thing.
I don’t tell them what to do. But I do have conversations with them so they think about things. I never tell them I think the games are rubbish. Maybe they love that game. And I don’t like adults telling kids things they love are trash. I just try to guide them best I can.
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I mean, is it that? Or are electronics getting to an unattainable price point? What 8 year old has $400+ for a console and $60 per game? Sure, parents will buy it, but it’s out of range for many.
That too, but also console gens aren’t what they used to be. What has the current gen done to justify itself beyond the prior gen?
The PS5 is basically PS4 Pro 2. Meh.
Where’s the excitement? We don’t have the graphical or storytelling upgrades of the past anymore. What is going to be incredible and new abiht the next generation? Probably not much.
I completely agree, I can’t even think of any games from this gen that were must play games that didn’t also come out on pc.
I think all gaming is heading towards pc at this point.
Reminds me of the story from the other day about how 80%? of hours spent playing PC games are on titles more than 6 years old.
Hell, I just upgraded my video card for the first time in seven years, but the reason I did it was mainly due to factors like avoiding increased future costs due to tariffs and wanting modern API support for stuff like raytracing and experimenting with LLMs, not because there was some particular new game I had in mind that required it.
To be fair, at least 80% of games are more than 6 years old.
I quit consoles after the PS3/Wii/360, but even I recognize the PS5 is a MASSIVE upgrade to even a PS4 Pro with a SSD installed. Framerates and load times are insanely better on the PS5.
So it runs the same games, but faster. Not exactly what I’d call a “massive upgrade”, especially when you compare PS1 to PS2 or PS2 to PS3
Your comment is what I’m getting at. It’s not the same anymore. Instead it’s like getting a new PC graphics card and finally being able to turn up the settings on mostly the same games.
The Nintendo Entertainment System launched at $179 in 1983.
In 2025 dollars, that’s $573.45.
Super Mario Bros. 3 — which I think is probably the best NES game — ran for $50 in 1990. That’s $122 in 2025 dollars.
However, the switch is only $300. It’s raised prices ~$100 in 40 years. Versus the PlayStation started at $300 in 95, and is up to $500. $200 in 30 years.
I understand your comparison, but some companies have extended the starting price more than others.
What I find interesting is they never adjust for inflation wages. Like if you were making $60k a year in 1885. What would that be in today’s money? That would be $178k. Or 118k for 40k in 1985. My question to everyone. are you making the 2025 values?
Your comment through me for a loop, initially I was thinking that due to changing baskets for calculating CPI/inflation that would account for wages, but that’s really just cost for basic goods shifting. So I looked it up and found out there is the ECI (Employment Cost Index) which is tracking “inflation” for labor.
This site has the chart of CPI vs ECI and, not too surprisingly, they move mostly in unison. The chart does diverge from what I would expect (costs out pacing wages), but haven’t had enough time to read into it.
https://www.bls.gov/blog/2023/more-ways-to-look-at-wages-and-inflation.htm
Yeah this goes back to 2005 and you see the devergince in 2008 if you go back to 1970 you will see a bigger devergince.
Any time you find a statistic that uses the term “real” on income, they’re making that adjustment.
Here’s Real Median Household Income in the United States.
Not a lot of people were making $60k in 1985. And yes, wages today have absolutely fallen behind. I’m not even making $60k now.
Very true random selection of a secretary for a woman in 1985 would have been 16k and would translate to 47k in 2025. My point being when they show how expensive stuff was they never show what wages would be if adjusted. Not the person on this thread but when journalists do it they never want to show that value to show how screwed some people are. As they see they are still making the 1985 wage in the year 2025.
bottom line, yes it’s true, but also at the same time, luxury costs have been fairly consistant. People make more money, but housing, food, vehicle expenses go up, at the end of it, they have about the same amount left for entertainment today as they did 20 years ago. bottom line the increases to what we have to buy has left no room for growth in spending on what we want to buy.
They probably dream of playing roblox on an RTX5090 XD
On the one hand, I agree that consoles get less relevant and important with each new generation. On the other hand, Netflix gaming isn’t what kids care about. Most kids I know play Roblox, minecraft and fortnite on underpowered PCs.
They don’t care about the new GPU launches either because even average home PCs play these games.
Yeah my 15yo son is running an early i7 with DDR3 and a 1660ti at 1080/60 and he plays Roblox and chats with his friends on Discord, watches YouTube. He doesn’t care about upgrades at all and never spends money or buys games or anything.
That’s really cool that he’s happy with what he’s got. Something that us adults should really learn from.
True, if I look at my own kids. The eldest doesn’t use their PS5, the PC is connected to the big screen. The middle one only uses their PS4 Pro to watch Youtube.
All gaming is done on PC.
Us parents are console gamers only so it’s definitely not influencing on our side.
Sounds painful to watch YouTube on a console primarily, unless paying for Premium although then you still get to watch sponsorships.
Even ignoring the ads, I’d be surprised if the interface wasn’t at least frustrating
Oh you’re absolutely right we’re on Premium. Youtube is absolutely horrible without.
Works fine on PC with an ad blocker and at least there you aren’t relying on YouTube keep any promises.
My 7yo is the heaviest user of our PS5 but he pretty much only plays Fortnite on it and plays everything else on his switch.
I think the convenience of switch and mobile games are something that todays kids have that we really didn’t have and that’s why Netflix is saying this.
Damn I am glad every day I cancelled this shit, and I started as a customer back in under “please mail me DVDs” phase. This company has completely lost itself.
Yup, was a customer from DVD mailing days up to a few price hikes ago. Now I use Real-Debrid with Stremio for a few bucks a month and laugh every time there’s another price hike.
Netflix needs to STFU and put the movies on the stream bro
And at lower prices! Idky they feel the need to talk shit now, they don’t have much to stand on. 🙄
Eight year olds also don’t have any money. I’m a grown ass adult and can afford to PS6 if it’s compelling enough. Also, none of those Netflix games are interesting.
Netflix makes games? Lol
Some games (I think Bloons 6 might be one of them) are available on the play store as a Netflix version which is just the paid version supported by a Netflix subscription.
They published some interesting mobile ones. And then figure out the crappy slop based on their TV shows actually does better, so they are going all-in on that.
Well if anyone knows what 8 year olds want it’s large corporations. Case closed folks.
Yes they fucking are.
Then why aren’t they getting jobs to support this claim? The number of 8 years olds with a credit card is STILL zero and it’s 2025. Aren’t they in interested in building their credit?
The kids only yern for the mines, not the consoles!
I know the headline says PlayStation, but this whole thread is ignoring the Nintendo Switch. For every PS5 sold, two Nintendo Switches were sold. Maybe PlayStation and Xbox are on the decline, but the Switch is nearly the bestselling console of all time (the PS2 is still in the lead and will likely hold that title.)
Also when it comes to MUST HAVE games, Nintendo has so many of those to choose from. Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Smash Bros, the list goes on.
Nintendo has absolutely dominated the console market and this article seems to just ignore that.
FYI, Nintendo DS is ahead of the switch still. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html
Good catch, so 2nd to 3rd for the Switch.
I don’t have a lot of experience, but the one 6 year old I’m around the most sure is obsessed with the PS5. I’m sure “Netflix” here means “rich board members” who typically know fuck all about their investments.
Really? Cause my kids don’t know what Netflix is and love the switch and portal. Maybe it’s Netflix people don’t care about anymore.
That’s because the kids you’re aiming at are busy with Roblox and whatever shitty “freemium” phone games they get their hands on
Dude it’s sad what kids are subject too now. Endless ad spam and shit games. They’ll always be corpo brainwashed.
It’s so hard. I have an N64, Wii, Wii U, Switch, PS5. The N64, Wii and Wii U have every game available on them. Switch and PS5 have decent libraries.
I set a laptop up with emulators of the main consoles before N64 (Nintendo/Sega/Handhelds etc) with the top 100 games of each, all in a nice emulation station interface with box art and video previews, and my personal favourites favourited. I set up steam family sharing with my library of 500 games (with inappropriate ones filtered out but still massive).
Didn’t ever buy them an ipad/tablet and never let them use my phone. Taught them how to use all of the things mentioned. Commonly play couch multiplayer games on these things with them. They’re not bad at games either. Beat Celeste, Undertale, Super Metroid as a few examples.
And YET I’ll still find my kids on the laptop playing rubbish flash games and shit, or asking their Nan to let them play on her phone.
Ah, good for you for trying!! I’m sure it’s hard, those trash games are made to be addictive…as have games always been really, but the evil was hidden better and they didn’t have the ability to track your every move.
My problem is at least other games have some benefits. Hand eye coordination, reflexes, critical thinking, problem solving skills, reading and comprehension skills.
Mobile games are designed to be as simple, accessible and most importantly easy as possible. They want you to feel like you’re winning over and over and over with no real effort on your part. Obviously there are some exceptions, but still.
even if the games suck they can still be an important social connection
my parents never let me watch any of the “bad” tv that all the other kids were watching and this made it even harder for me to connect and make friends
and it also meant I never got the opportunity to decide to understand and experience for myself why these shows were bad
same can probably be said for the shitty mobile games tbh
maybe they’re more predatory than all that advertising directed at kids via tv back in my day but idk by how much really if you’re actively teaching your kids about what predatory practices look like
they have to learn, better for them to understand how to fight this stuff when they’re younger rather than when they get in over their heads gambling on counterstrike skins as teenagers
For sure. I’ve never outright banned it if they get access such as from their nan or play them on their laptop when they have time on it. I agree with everything you said. I’m just also not going to let them sit on my phone mindlessly playing them either.
Those apps make them want to pay. They make them want to play every X amount of time to get daily and timed bonuses. They play stupid ads that convince them to download more shitty games that do the same thing.
I don’t tell them what to do. But I do have conversations with them so they think about things. I never tell them I think the games are rubbish. Maybe they love that game. And I don’t like adults telling kids things they love are trash. I just try to guide them best I can.
It’s complicated to navigate.
I would be messed up too if I was introduced to gambling at 4 years old.
I’m 8 yrs old /s.
I can’t wait for the PlayStation one billion Mario edition.
PlayStation 6 would be cool tho.