vivftp
Member
First, let's be clear that this thread is referring to the baseline PS6 console, not the Portable or any other variants. Now we don't know if they'll do separate disc/digital models again, so please clarify your vote in your post if you'd like.
Now, there's a lot of speculation over when the PS6 family of consoles will arrive, what the economy will be like at that time, and what the tech sector might look like. We can't know any of that, so this is a prediction thread that we can look back upon in the future. The question is simple, do you think Sony will subsidize the PS6 baseline console at launch and if you do, how much do you think they'll subsidize it to hit their target MSRP?
Historically Sony's subsidized their new gen of consoles at launch. This data is from my own online searches, so hopefully it's accurate. With the PS4, Sony lost about $18 - $61 per unit. With the PS3, Sony lost about $240 - $300 per unit. Let's look at the hit that a new console gen takes on their profits from a historical perspective: (I'm only now realizing that one chart below says millions of Yen and one says billions of Yen, but oh well, I'm just looking at the relative scale of each year)
We can see that Sony has historically been willing to subsidize to hit a target price, even if it meant taking a loss on their profits initially. The PS5 was the first gen where Sony was able to not only reverse that trend, but pull in a record profit, but of course this was also during the first year of the pandemic where video game sales ballooned. Let's take a look at another chart showing how things have gone in subsequent years:
So we can see that Sony has increased their profits since the PS5 launch, meaning they have a far larger cushion to fall back on should they decide to heavily subsidize the PS6. They're operating on a completely different scale now than they were during the PS3 gen. I mean the entire disastrous 4 year stretch of losses during the PS3 gen is pretty much on par with their profits of just this FY alone, and I think this chart is only showing the first 3 quarters! So SIEs capacity to potentially subsidize the PS6 is massive, if they really want to try and hit a specific target price. Remember they were eating $240 - $300 per unit on the PS3, and they could tank that right now while still pulling in a massive profit.
So while we don't know what the future will hold, what's your guess on how much you think Sony will be willing to subsidize the baseline PS6 to hit their target price?
Now, there's a lot of speculation over when the PS6 family of consoles will arrive, what the economy will be like at that time, and what the tech sector might look like. We can't know any of that, so this is a prediction thread that we can look back upon in the future. The question is simple, do you think Sony will subsidize the PS6 baseline console at launch and if you do, how much do you think they'll subsidize it to hit their target MSRP?
Historically Sony's subsidized their new gen of consoles at launch. This data is from my own online searches, so hopefully it's accurate. With the PS4, Sony lost about $18 - $61 per unit. With the PS3, Sony lost about $240 - $300 per unit. Let's look at the hit that a new console gen takes on their profits from a historical perspective: (I'm only now realizing that one chart below says millions of Yen and one says billions of Yen, but oh well, I'm just looking at the relative scale of each year)
We can see that Sony has historically been willing to subsidize to hit a target price, even if it meant taking a loss on their profits initially. The PS5 was the first gen where Sony was able to not only reverse that trend, but pull in a record profit, but of course this was also during the first year of the pandemic where video game sales ballooned. Let's take a look at another chart showing how things have gone in subsequent years:
So we can see that Sony has increased their profits since the PS5 launch, meaning they have a far larger cushion to fall back on should they decide to heavily subsidize the PS6. They're operating on a completely different scale now than they were during the PS3 gen. I mean the entire disastrous 4 year stretch of losses during the PS3 gen is pretty much on par with their profits of just this FY alone, and I think this chart is only showing the first 3 quarters! So SIEs capacity to potentially subsidize the PS6 is massive, if they really want to try and hit a specific target price. Remember they were eating $240 - $300 per unit on the PS3, and they could tank that right now while still pulling in a massive profit.
So while we don't know what the future will hold, what's your guess on how much you think Sony will be willing to subsidize the baseline PS6 to hit their target price?
