Someone at Sony is feeling very smart and modern right now, totally unaware that PlayStation is now a dead brand walking.

They are a strong brand, but that’s not going to be enough to justify a definitely-$1k+ PS6 compared to increasing handheld and console-like gaming options that are not locked down ecosystems. Their exclusives likely can’t save them, they have been dying out already.

Physical media was one of the few remaining differentiators for hardcore collectors and loyalists. Even if I’m sure it’s a greatly diminished part of their bottom line, it’s a psychological anchor that justifies the existence of a console. Now their console will be just another extremely handicapped and uncompetitive digital box, even if (as recently reported) they copy the Switch dockable format.

I have one! It never really got a killer app game, but I always appreciated its quirks.

Mine is en route, but seeing the videos and early reviews, I think I’ll leave mine unopened for a bit and give them more time to create an interface and get the rest of the software done.

I agree, it’s disappointing, but I am still cutting them some slack since it’s still a very affordable and nice-looking MISTer box, and I do think they’re acting in good faith but just in over their heads (with overoptimistic time lines).

I was most disappointed to see the flimsy Superdock drive, however, since they took so much time and that’s a design flaw that won’t get better without a hardware rev.

Yes, that’s of course fair. Even if it’s not perfect compliance, though, the more people hold out, the faster and lower prices drop, so there’s still value in it.

But short of regulation, is there anything else within our power to do?

OpenAI and Anthropic’s IPOs +2-4 weeks is my best guess for when the market starts sliding. Investor money is already drying up, but too many rich people haven’t cashed out yet, helping themselves (like SpaceX) to our index retirement funds to countersign withdrawals at the inflated valuations.

I’m on the fence after that if it’ll happen slow or fast. Possible we’ll get a Bear Stearns/Lehman type failure that brings down the world’s markets, after a major player no longer has a blank check at multi-billion/quarter burn rates, and hits insolvency like a freight train. But also likely it could unravel more slowly like a sweater, as de-escalating levels of market access pull on the thread in turn.

Don’t doom too much about this headline. HBM contracts represent artificial AI demand. When the bubble pops (and it will pop), the HBM demand evaporates and it’s back to competing for consumers. That said, there will be a very slow ratchet to get back to consumer-competitive prices, because as component costs go down, additional companies will be “priced in” to speculative AI business models, even if hyperscalers and other AI-drunk multinationals are backing off.

Regardless of whether there is a bubble, though, AI spending is ludicriously, unsustainably inflated even from existing memory customers. They are purchasing one-time AI infrastructure that needs to last a decade to even have a remote chance of paying off the hardware investments. There are only a few companies that can afford current AI pricing, those companies have already played their hands and paid for allocations, and they will not keep purchasing at this pace even in their own best case scenarios.

Regulation could keep consumer prices down, but of course we’re in the bad Trump timeline and that won’t happen until at least 2028. Assuming the bubble pops before then, the key to resetting this “new normal” is to NOT purchase anything you do not need to until we’re back to $80-130 / 64GB or cheaper, like it was in 2025. Hold out, make them desperate to lower prices.

The fear is that, if the past is anything to go by, the AI boom will follow a similar arc to these other technology-driven infrastructure booms: a flood of speculative capital will flow in, leading to massive overinvestment, asset price bubbles and ultimately a crash as euphoria collides with a disappointing reality.

Shocking.

Next up: Meta plans rural backyard wrestling league. Analysts expect a healthy side business selling whippits.

All fair points, thank you for sharing. I guess in a crazy overvalued property market, the huge mortgage down payment does make the biggest difference since compound returns on that same investment could be huge in the stock market (until of course an AI crash wipes out all our investments and retirement accounts). In a less overvalued market property may make more sense.

I’d be curious to know your logic why renting is cheaper than buying.

To explain: Even disregarding that a later sale price is an intrinsic inflation recoup, paying a mortgage also means any principle is recouped on sale, meaning only interest is the actual monthly “rent” after a sale, maybe decades later. Finally it’s rare property value doesn’t go up, which also reduces the costs. Despite all these benefits, you still found renting and investing the difference gave better returns?

Yup, the second group were always the corporate survivors, willing to do anything to keep their (and if needed, only their) jobs.

Stocking up on Blu-rays can’t happen soon enough - once sales drop too low for too long, they’ll never come back. Studios will move on, manufacturing will dry up and what’s left become more expensive, the customer base will get used to them not being available, and every factor in this sentence will accelerate the other factors.

For those of you who need a longer offramp to Linux like me and maybe haven’t seen this posted before:

https://massgrave.dev/windows10_eol

You can activate any copy with support at least through 2028.

Don’t worry, they’re using AI now so that’ll fix the spaghetti code. /s

In his memo, Zuckerberg predicted that even more difficult days could be ahead for the company, despite vowing to hold off on any future layoffs for the rest of the year.

“Given the complexity of these changes, we’ve made mistakes and will almost certainly make more,” he admitted.

“I will certainly make more mistakes that you will have to pay for, but I can promise you you will probably not be laid off for at least six months.”

Is it this? https://github.com/wipeout-phantom-edition/wipeout-phantom-edition

It seems based on the original Wipeout, but I can’t find a similar XL decomp/rewrite project, just emulation.

I’ve been playing Puzzle Quest on my original PSP every so often and it’s really such a nice change of pace. No enshittification, subscriptions, forced updates, distractions…

I know it’s just a game system, but it feels like it’s helping repair my attention span and reminding me why I enjoyed technology a decade or two ago.

This reply is offensive. We both went to all that work and you didn’t even have the decency to say “What Nintendidn’tyetbecausethatDSadisalotmorerecentandidon’trememberNintendoutselfhavinganythingquitethatrisqueinthe’90s.”

I think your response is deadpan, but just to be clear, there’s no way that’s real. I can be convinced by someone creating a properly faked Photoshop of it in a real magazine, however.

Or, I guess, Sega did what Nintendalsodid.