Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X were already pretty expensive when they launched in 2020. Microsoft launched the Series S alongside the Series X at a reduced price but it also came with reduced performance. That makes the recent price increase sting a little more, prospective Series S owners will have to pay more for the same performance.

Console wallet damage buffed

You’re probably here for the numbers. So before we go any further, here are the new prices:

Sony
PS5 (Disc Edition) – R13,700 (up from R12,500)
PS5 (Digital Edition) – R11,800 (up from R11,300)
PS VR2 – R15,500 (up from R13,500)

Microsoft
XB Series X 1TB – R13,000 (up from R12,500)
Xbox Series S 1TB – R8,600 (new)
Xbox Series S 500GB – R7,600 (up from R7,000)

Read More: Microsoft reveals a PS5 Slim might launch later this year

It’s hardly surprising considering the price of consoles from both companies has fluctuated since they launched. A year ago, Sony announced a price increase for the PS5 around the world. This year, after the consoles saw a limited-time price reduction, Microsoft announced a price hike for its consoles and its Game Pass subscription streaming service. PlayStations were quick to follow, although this time around it wasn’t from Sony but from PlayStation’s South African distributor Gamefinity. Thankfully, for whatever reason, the new prices have fallen just short of what was expected then.

Gaming console quick time event

Before the dread that you might never own one of these consoles sets in, there is a small bit of hope that could save you from the feeling altogether. Many retailers are currently running promotions for the consoles, either alone or as part of a bundle, while they still have the cheaper stock on hand. Some retailers specify when their deals will end, others aren’t so forthcoming. There’s also Black Friday around the corner to consider. Let’s hope the Rand/Dollar exchange rate doesn’t worsen before then so the ‘special prices’ still feel special.

Source

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“Designed to be at the very centre of your life at home, the Project Oris lets you play games, listen to music, and even watch media. You could hook it to a screen, or you could just point it at a blank wall and let its in-built projector broadcast an 8K HDR display. For music and gaming, the display is complemented by the console’s in-built 5 audio drivers that deliver rich bass as well as crisp highs in all directions,” Yankodesign details the features of their project. As far as we can tell, this is a completely independent concept, meaning Microsoft didn’t have a hand in its conceptualisation. 

But we’re not convinced. 

Historically, any AI voice assistants that aren’t Siri, Google or Alexa have failed. Why? It comes down to the fact that these three have the capacity for major machine learning computers and a database of voice recognition software. Google’s voice recognition is off the rail — something you can only achieve from listening to billions of users over a span of several years. Remember Bixby? 

Samsung has halted its whole smart speaker project, or so it seems. Since it debuted the Galaxy Smart Home Speaker in 2018, we haven’t seen a realised product in the market yet. How does a major superpower like Samsung struggle to launch a smart speaker lineup? It just doesn’t have the scope and power that Google, Apple and Amazon boast in terms of server capacity, voice recognition capability and machine learning abilities. 

In theory, Microsoft, the guys behind Xbox, will have the capability in terms of servers and machine learning — no argument there. But it’s way behind the smart assistant game, which will make it a harder sell. We also reckon the addition of a projector is absolute overkill. Do you know how much a decent projector costs? It will push up the price to unaffordable rates. 

We can see an Xbox console/smart assistant working as a smart home addition, but the projector/hi-fi combo is definitely overkill. They’ll have to sacrifice gaming capacity to house major projector components and big drivers for the speakers. If all of the hardware is top-shelf, this machine will turn out gigantic. And sacrificing on one of them would mean they could just as well remove the capability completely.

A crappy projector is better left off anyway. So, we could kind of see Project Oris working if the Assistant works well, and maybe the speaker. But right now it feels like a mashup of all the things that will work better separately.

Sauce: Yankodesigns

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