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[sonycowboy]

The biggest value in gaming EVAH Or out of control costs.

http://www.isuppli.com/news/default.asp?id=6919

PlayStation 3 Offers Supercomputer Performance at PC Pricing, iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis Reveals

November 16, 2006

From delivery delays, to technology hurdles, to missed production targets, to cancelled pre-orders, to an apparently exorbitant price tag—we’ve all read the bad news regarding Sony Corp.’s much-anticipated new PlayStation 3 video-game console.

Now for the good news: iSuppli Corp.’s dissection reveals the PlayStation 3 is an engineering masterpiece that sets a new high mark for computing price/performance—even when considering it is more expensive than its nearest rival, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp.

“With the PlayStation 3, you are getting the performance of a supercomputer at the price of an entry-level PC,” said Andrew Rassweiler, teardown services manager and senior analyst for iSuppli.

Table 1 below presents iSuppli’s estimate of major component and subsystem cost drivers for the PlayStation 3.

PlayStation 3 costs

The combined materials and manufacturing cost of the PlayStation 3 is $805.85 for the model equipped with a 20Gbyte Hard Disk Drive (HDD), and $840.35 for the 60Gbyte HDD version, according to iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis service’s preliminary estimate of expenses in the fourth quarter. This total doesn’t include additional costs for elements including the controller, cables and packaging.

At these costs, Sony is taking a considerable loss on each PlayStation 3 sold. Materials and manufacturing costs for the 20Gbyte model exceed the suggested retail price of $499 by a total of $306.85, iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis service estimates. For the 60Gbyte version, costs exceed the $599 price by $241.35.

With Sony taking a smaller loss on the higher-end model, it’s not a surprise the company is steering customers to the 60Gbyte version.

In contrast, the HDD-equipped Xbox 360 has a manufacturing and materials total of $323.30, based on an updated estimate using costs in the fourth quarter of 2006. This total is $75.70 less than the $399 suggested retail price of the Xbox 360.

Table 2 below presents a comparison of costs between the PlayStation 3 models and the Xbox 360.

It’s common for video-game console makers to lose money on hardware, and make up for the loss via video game-title sales. Still, the size of Sony’s loss per unit is remarkable, even for the video-game console business.

Cutting-edge design

Despite this, iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis shows that with the PlayStation 3, Sony has delivered an amazing level of performance for the cost.

“The reason why the PlayStation 3 is so costly to produce is because it has incredible processing power,” Rassweiler said. “If someone had shown me the PlayStation 3 motherboard from afar without telling me what it was, I would have assumed it was for a network switch or an enterprise server.”

Some of the more advanced features of the PlayStation 3’s design include:

* The dual Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), i.e. the RSX Reality Synthesizer from Nvidia Corp. and the Emotion Engine & Graphics Synthesizer from Toshiba Corp. The RSX Reality Synthesizer delivers cutting-edge high-definition graphics—while the Emotion Engine provides backward compatibility with PlayStation 2 game titles. With their design wins, Nvidia and Toshiba control 12 percent and 11 percent of the total PlayStation 3 materials and manufacturing costs respectively.
* The Cell Broadband Engine from IBM, which serves as the central processing unit of the PlayStation 3, provides the equivalent computing power of eight individual microprocessors. The Cell is what endows the PlayStation 3 with its supercomputer-like power, Rassweiler observed. IBM’s Cell processor accounts for 11 percent of the PlayStation 3 costs.
* The use of four Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. 512Mbit DRAMs that employ high-speed memory interface technology from Rambus Inc. This marks the first use of the advanced XDR DRAM technology that iSuppli has detected. Samsung’s memory represents 11 percent of PlayStation 3 costs. Samsung and Elpida Memory Inc. are dual sources for the XDR DRAM.

Table 3 below presents the top-10 suppliers who control the most semiconductor value inside the PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation 3 exhibits a very advanced design in general.

“To give an example of how cutting-edge the design is, in the entire history of the iSuppli Teardown Analysis team, we have seen only three semiconductors with 1,200 or more pins. The PlayStation 3 has three such semiconductors all by itself,” Rassweiler noted. “There is nothing cheap about the PlayStation 3 design. This is not an adapted PC design. Even beyond the major chips in the PlayStation 3, the other components seem to also be expensive and somewhat exotic.”

Rassweiler cited the PlayStation 3’s inclusion of a power supply that packs a whopping 400-watts—yet uses a very compact, low-profile design. At $37.50, this power supply costs about twice as much as an average unit found in a PC.

Other component winners

While many of the major components found in the PlayStation 3 were already known, iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis team reported some surprise part selections in the game console that could boost the fortunes of their suppliers. These include:

* International Rectifier Corp., which contributes several power-management devices to the PlayStation 3. This gives International Rectifier a 3 percent share of total PlayStation 3 materials and manufacturing costs.
* Marvell Technology Group Ltd.’s 802.11 b/g module chipset, which provides wireless local area networking capabilities. With this design win, Marvell owns 2 percent of the PlayStation 3’s costs.
* CSR plc’s BlueCore 4 solution, which supports version 2.0 of the Bluetooth wireless standard, plus Enhanced Data Rate technology, giving it a transfer speed three times faster than current Bluetooth devices, according to CSR. This gives CSR a 1 percent share of the PlayStation 3 cost.
* Spansion Inc, which contributed an 8Mbit NOR flash memory chip for the PlayStation 3’s Bluetooth module, and a 16Mbit NOR flash part for the console’s Blu-Ray module. This gives Spansion ownership of less than 1 percent of the PlayStation 3’s costs.

A component glitch

Sony has suffered some well-publicized problems meeting its PlayStation 3 production and delivery goals.

Production problems meant that only 100,000 PlayStation 3 machines were ready in time for the console’s debut in Japan on Nov. 11, according to Chris Crotty, senior analyst, consumer electronics for iSuppli. When it goes on sale in the United States on Nov. 17, about 400,000 PS3 consoles will be available. Meanwhile, the console’s European launch has been pushed back until March of 2007.

Crotty said the reduction in shipments was due to yield problems at Nichia Corp., which supplies blue laser diodes for the PlayStation 3’s Blu-ray DVD. This slowed PlayStation 3 production.

Blues for Blu-Ray

Sony’s Blu-Ray DVD read only optical device in the PlayStation 3 has dual purposes: up-converting the game console’s output to high-definition resolution, and allowing viewers to watch high-definition movies using the console, according to Krishna Chander, senior analyst, storage devices, for iSuppli.

Sony’s strategy was not lost on Microsoft, which plans to offer a separate add-on high-definition DVD system for the Xbox 360. This should be available around the holiday season this year. Nintendo has no plans to offer a next-generation DVD system in its game consoles.

Given that more studio movie releases now are supported by Blu-Ray disks, Sony’s PS3 has a slight advantage. However, Microsoft plans to offer some network television movies for download into the Xbox 360 system.

PlayStation’s HDD

The PlayStation 3’s HDD is a 2.5-inch, 20Gbyte capacity drive supplied by Seagate Technology Inc. The reason a HDD is included in the PlayStation 3 is to store the mathematical modeling based on physics for the motion and impact of the various game objects. The DVD media produces the objects that are manipulated by the game player and for each scenario; the most realistic situations are replicated using the Cell processor and mathematical models.

Not so expensive after all

While many fret over the high cost and price of the PlayStation 3 compared to the competition, iSuppli believes the console provides more processing power and capability than any consumer electronics device in history. Because of this, the PlayStation 3 is a great bargain, well worth its $599 price and $840.35 cost, iSuppli believes.

 

[D.Lo]

"PlayStation’s HDD

The PlayStation 3’s HDD is a 2.5-inch, 20Gbyte capacity drive supplied by Seagate Technology Inc. The reason a HDD is included in the PlayStation 3 is to store the mathematical modeling based on physics for the motion and impact of the various game objects. The DVD media produces the objects that are manipulated by the game player and for each scenario; the most realistic situations are replicated using the Cell processor and mathematical models."

That's the worst marketing speak I've ever read.

Article = fail.

 

[Tchu-Espresso]

I thought microsoft were getting stallowned on hardware?

 

[Diablohead]

I thought MS lost money on a 360 sold?

 

[Nerevar]

is this supposed to be marketing for Sony? I'm confused. And :lol at the Sony motherboard / chipset costing 2.5x as much as the 360 one. More expensive, yes, but 2.5x? Gimme a break.

 

[plagiarize]

didn't we already learn that consumers don't give two shits about what the hardware costs to make when judging price and they only care what it does?

 

[Dynamite Shikoku]

is this supposed to be marketing for Sony? I'm confused. And :lol at the Sony motherboard / chipset costing 2.5x as much as the 360 one. More expensive, yes, but 2.5x? Gimme a break.

Give us some proof, not laughs!

 

[ElyrionX]

Considering how powerful it is, why are we seeing little to no differences between the graphics of its launch games as compared to the graphics of 360's launch games? Diminishing returns?

 

[Zaptruder]

That shit doesn't seem to be adding up?

I mean... we've all been thinking that the CELL and the BD are the major cost reasons...

and together, they amount to a $150-200 gap between the two components in the X360, according to that report.

The other components are similar to a large extent... extra features like blue tooth and such are costing them a few dollars.

But the X360 doesn't have a similar summary... indeed, a lot of it is missing. Miscellaneous other assemblies missing entirely? WTH?

Is that $300 gap really been accounted for by 1 years of manufacturing difference?

And for the BD drive... what's the major cost component there? The blue laser diode? Some sort of stablizing mechanism that requires more exacting machining tolerances?

I find these analysis intriguing... but it's inducing more questions then it's answering.

 

[sonycowboy]

didn't we already learn that consumers don't give two shits about what the hardware costs to make when judging price and they only care what it does?

:lol

I'm almost speechless that somehow XBox folks are taking this as a marketing point. The damn thing is going to bankrupt Sony and is ridiculously expensive and somehow you guys are trying to make sure that people don't say "DAMN. LOOK AT HOW MUCH IT"S WORTH IN COMPONENT PARTS!!!".

Absolutely nobody would say that. Obviously the Blu-Ray inclusion is important as well as some of the overall small parts, but you simply can't concieve that somehow folks would say, well if it's $575 time more to make than the 360, but only $100 in retail, I'm going to pick that sucker up.

Can we turn down the defense mechanisms for just a little while?

 

[Nerevar]

:lol

I'm almost speechless that somehow XBox folks are taking this as a marketing point. The damn thing is going to bankrupt Sony and is ridiculously expensive and somehow you guys are trying to make sure that people don't say "DAMN. LOOK AT HOW MUCH IT"S WORTH IN COMPONENT PARTS!!!".

Absolutely nobody would say that. Obviously the Blu-Ray inclusion is important as well as some of the overall small parts, but you simply can't concieve that somehow folks would say, well if it's $575 time more to make than the 360, but only $100 in retail, I'm going to pick that sucker up.

Can we turn down the defense mechanisms for just a little while?

It's not a defensive statement, it's pointing out how incredibly inane this report is. It's nothing more than someone's "educated guess" as to how much the component costs are, and a poor guess at that.

 

[ToxicAdam]

Holy shit. Was this written by Deadmeat?

 

[Arsenal]

I thought MS lost money on a 360 sold?

MS does not get the full MSRP price for each unit sold - the retailer gets a nice chunk of that as well. While the MSRP has not changed since launch, you see a lot more bundling and deals happening at the retail level so I'm guessing their is a healthy margin there for them to work with. I would guess that MS is pretty close to break even on the systems and probably coming out a little ahead with their accessories.

 

[Lord Error]

X360 motherboard $300 cheaper? Yeah, that doesn't sound right.

 

[dark10x]

Considering how powerful it is, why are we seeing little to no differences between the graphics of its launch games as compared to the graphics of 360's launch games? Diminishing returns?

Developer talent and ability.

 

[TheJesusFactor]

Why is a 20 Gig Harddrive $43.00? I think they are getting ripped off, or these numbers are wrong.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

that's 806 Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers........


....in case anyone was keeping score at home.

 

[plagiarize]

:lol

I'm almost speechless that somehow XBox folks are taking this as a marketing point. The damn thing is going to bankrupt Sony and is ridiculously expensive and somehow you guys are trying to make sure that people don't say "DAMN. LOOK AT HOW MUCH IT"S WORTH IN COMPONENT PARTS!!!".

Absolutely nobody would say that. Obviously the Blu-Ray inclusion is important as well as some of the overall small parts, but you simply can't concieve that somehow folks would say, well if it's $575 time more to make than the 360, but only $100 in retail, I'm going to pick that sucker up.

Can we turn down the defense mechanisms for just a little while?

you called me 'xbox folk'. that makes me sad. only thing stopping me getting a ps3 is the wii launch setting me back a pretty penny, the fact that i already have a 360 and i can play most of the launch games there and how much money i have. i'll be buying a ps3 next year no doubts.

the article concludes 'While many fret over the high cost and price of the PlayStation 3 compared to the competition, iSuppli believes the console provides more processing power and capability than any consumer electronics device in history. Because of this, the PlayStation 3 is a great bargain, well worth its $599 price and $840.35 cost, iSuppli believes.'

that is what i was referring to. the conclusion that somehow, the cost of manufacturing makes it's actual cost a bargain.

i've always said this, if you just want a game console for an sdtv $499 is a steep price. if you want an hdmi capable, blu-ray film playing game console, it's a great price. value is entirely based on what the consumer gets out of it, and not what it costs to make or the console specs. if the graphics are better or worse, the consumer doesn't care why, or how much more the better graphics hardware costs, just if the difference is worth their coin.

that's not a strike against any console. just this stupid article.

 

[Ynos Yrros]

Well just comparing X360 and PS3 mobos shows that one is definately more pricey and of higher quality.

 

[UtadaBarkley]

Developer talent and ability.

Exactly. Devs these days have way too many resources at their disposal to appreciate them, and to max out their abilities. Back in the 16-bit days, they were churning out some unbelievable titles, because they pushed the absolute limits of the console due to the fact that they didn't have much to work with to begin with. These days there are just so many possibilities, and games are so extremely expensive to develop, you can't really knock them for not producing some craaaazy amazing stuff. Okay, now as I'm typing this I'm starting to disagree a bit with my own post. (Remembers Tekken 5 and SotC.) :lol But still, I'm sure you guys understand the point I'm trying to make, I think they could’ve made something even more spectacular if they had the time, money, energy and most of all, willpower.

 

[Mrbob]

The real question is how fast these costs will scale down.

These are obviously start up component costs, and next year when everything gets shrunk the costs should go down considerably. So should the cost of a blu ray drive.

PS3 will probably see the fastest drop in costs for a console we have ever seen, once many of these parts get into true mass production and the system shrink to a 65 process.

 

[kaching]

didn't we already learn that consumers don't give two shits about what the hardware costs to make when judging price and they only care what it does?

Yes, I think we did. But I don't think this is targeted at the average consumer in the first place, nor do I think that should be any reason to brush off discussion of this on a dedicated gaming forum.

 

[plagiarize]

Yes, I think we did. But I don't think this is targeted at the average consumer in the first place, nor do I think that should be any reason to brush off discussion of this on a dedicated gaming forum.

again, i was responding to what the article says in conclusion and not the posting of the article. the information in the tables IS interesting.

 

[klee123]

The real question is how fast these costs will scale down.

These are obviously start up component costs, and next year when everything gets shrunk the costs should go down considerably. So should the cost of a blu ray drive.

PS3 will probably see the fastest drop in costs for a console we have ever seen, once many of these parts get into true mass production and the system shrink to a 65 process.

It's probably the only way Sony can sell the system to the mainstream. 300/400USD for the 20/60GB configurations I reckon would do fairly well. The biggest question is "when?".

 

[kaching]

again, i was responding to what the article says in conclusion and not the posting of the article. the information in the tables IS interesting.

which, again, isn't going to be targeted at the general consumer, so why worry about them?

 

[bycha]

isuppli is the most respected company in it's business -- hater's go away.

I'm suprised how much that thing cost even after Sony's prediction it's gonna lose almost 2 bln on it before FY end.

 

[plagiarize]

which, again, isn't going to be targeted at the general consumer, so why worry about them?

i'm just discussing the article. i don't have to agree with their conclusions do i?

i don't think the ps3 can be called over priced until supply > demand, and i don't think that basing its value on component parts is a relavent way of looking at its worth, whoever is making that statement and whoever they're making it to.

 

[Arsenal]

Why is a 20 Gig Harddrive $43.00? I think they are getting ripped off, or these numbers are wrong.

For that type of HDD, its pretty realistic. Relatively speaking, HDDs have a pretty high fixed cost so the smaller drives don't drop off in price the way you would normally expected older electronic technology to. Notice that the 60GB drive is not that much more expensive for triple the capacity.

 

[datruth29]

X360 motherboard $300 cheaper? Yeah, that doesn't sound right.

I think when their talking about the motherboard, there actually talking about all the parts, which include the cpu and the video processor. Plus, you also have to realize that their comparing a product that has just started to get into manufacturing compared to a product that has been manufactured for over a year. A year makes a world of difference as far as manufacturing a product is concerned.

 

[Tenacious-V]

I'd trust this over any gaffers assessment of cost. That's all isuppli does is assess cost of components. They tear down hardware and price it, and they've been doing it for years.

Some of you guys are way to quick to criticize.

 

[sonycowboy]

you called me 'xbox folk'. that makes me sad. only thing stopping me getting a ps3 is the wii launch setting me back a pretty penny, the fact that i already have a 360 and i can play most of the launch games there and how much money i have. i'll be buying a ps3 next year no doubts.

Despite you're being particularly tough on Sony at times, which at this point is perfectly valid, I shouldn't have referenced your response as Xbox fan, although your post did have the same tone of this somehow being a positive for the PS3, which I simply don't see.

I don't think they've got the absolute right number, but costs breakdown is what these guys do for a living. They've got access to component and manufacturing costs and they've done an actual breakdown of the retail system. Obviously Sony's internal production costs are public, nor are there contracts with suppliers, but as far as ~most components go, I think they've likely got a decent idea. I doubt it's quite as high as they say, but I'd bet it's pretty darn high.

 

[ElyrionX]

Developer talent and ability.

I don't know about that.

From a technical achievement perspective, Konami has got to be the most talented developer that worked on the PS2.

Looking at MGS4, it doesn't look significantly more impressive than Gears of War. Since MGS4 is about a year away (I think), comparing GoW with it is fair game.

 

[manngc]

Sony’s Blu-Ray DVD read only optical device in the PlayStation 3 has dual purposes: up-converting the game console’s output to high-definition resolution, and allowing viewers to watch high-definition movies using the console, according to Krishna Chander, senior analyst, storage devices, for iSuppli.

Hasn't this be stated to NOT be the case. The PS3 will not upconvert games and DVDs.

 

[plagiarize]

I'd trust this over any gaffers assessment of cost. That's all isuppli does is assess cost of components. They tear down hardware and price it, and they've been doing it for years.

Some of you guys are way to quick to criticize.

i'm not criticising their assessment of cost, just the conclusions they draw from that and some of the other bizarre statements (such as their explanation for the presence of a harddrive).

 

[Norse]

so, the bluray drive is used to "up-converting the game console’s output to high-definition resolution" That article blows..cant trust any of its info as the writer knows nothing about how the system works, yet tried to write how it does.

And the motherboard makes him think the system is an expensive router! erm...eh....hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

before release, they should have had their tech guys look it over.

 

[neptunes]

I wouldn't question iSuppli's estimates, I think they're credible enough.

 

[Luckyman]

$15 for WiFi? $500 for motherboard? MS not loosing money?

ISuppli must be all over the place.

Since MGS4 is about a year away (I think), comparing GoW with it is fair game.

:lol

 

[Doctor_No]

It's probably the only way Sony can sell the system to the mainstream. 300/400USD for the 20/60GB configurations I reckon would do fairly well. The biggest question is "when?".

Costs should drop significantly in many areas, however, how competitively it will drop compared to is competitors will depend largely on how quickly they can lower costs associated with the blue-laser diode.

I respect iSuppli immensly, they definitely have the best people out there that do pricing analysis, and they have been fairly accurate in the past.

However, ~$300 of the cost are from Sony-manufactured semiconductors (RSX, Cell, I/O Controller, EE/GS) which I'm sure the cost includes the hundreds of millions, in not billions, of dollars Sony has already spend to set up the fab. These costs have the highest potential to drop from their current inflated highs, especially as yield improves and they move to 65nm lithography from their current 90nm process.

Another significant cost is Blu-ray optical drive which is estimated at $125, clearly the major issue is the blue laser diodes that they've said they are having problems manufacturing, similar problems occurred during the early days of DVD when cost of red-laser diodes were still expensive, I'm sure to a large extent Sony included Blu-ray in the assumption that they could get the cost of these blue-laser diodes down.

Some of their data is hard to interpret, they have "Other components and manufactering" down at $148 and then have "manufactering costs" again at $40. also, have the casing+PSU+Cooling costs over $90.

 

[bill0527]

MS does not get the full MSRP price for each unit sold - the retailer gets a nice chunk of that as well. While the MSRP has not changed since launch, you see a lot more bundling and deals happening at the retail level so I'm guessing their is a healthy margin there for them to work with. I would guess that MS is pretty close to break even on the systems and probably coming out a little ahead with their accessories.

Indeed. I believe the H&E division only had a $75 million loss last quarter which is pretty incredible since the system hadn't even hit the 1 year point at the time of their last quarterly report.

I would even speculate that the H&E division would turn a profit next quarter if not for the fact that Zune was launching right now, but I bet their Xbox business is profitable next quarter, or very close to being so.

 

[kaching]

i'm just discussing the article. i don't have to agree with their conclusions do i?

i don't think the ps3 can be called over priced until supply > demand, and i don't think that basing its value on component parts is a relavent way of looking at its worth, whoever is making that statement and whoever they're making it to.

You were discussing the article from a frame reference that wasn't relevant to it in the first place. And yes, I do think there's a frame of reference that's a relevant audience for their conclusions. Their analysis isn't simply about worth, it's about quality of build, scaleability, manufacturing partnerships, etc. It's very relevant for assessing Sony's ability to scale their PS3 business.

 

[plagiarize]

You were discussing the article from a frame reference that wasn't relevant to it in the first place. And yes, I do think there's a frame of reference that's a relevant audience for their conclusions. Their analysis isn't simply about worth, it's about quality of build, scaleability, manufacturing partnerships, etc. It's very relevant for assessing Sony's ability to scale their PS3 business.

yes it is very relavent for talking about scaleability etc. i just don't think any of those things are relevant for saying whether or not the system is priced correctly.

 

[Nerevar]

However, ~$300 of the cost are from Sony-manufactured semiconductors (RSX, Cell, I/O Controller, EE/GS) which I'm sure the cost includes the hundreds of millions, in not billions, of dollars Sony has already spend to set up the fab. These costs have the highest potential to drop from their current inflated highs, especially as yield improves and they move to 65nm lithography from their current 90nm process.

Another significant cost is Blu-ray optical drive which is estimated at $125, clearly the major issue is the blue laser diodes that they've said they are having problems manufacturing, similar problems occurred during the early days of DVD when cost of red-laser diodes were still expensive, I'm sure to a large extent Sony included Blu-ray in the assumption that they could get the cost of these blue-laser diodes down.

Some of their data is hard to interpret, they have "Other components and manufactering" down at $148 and then have "manufactering costs" again at $40. also, have the casing+PSU+Cooling costs over $90.

Not only that, they have the Cell + RSX costing more than the entire processing core of the 360 alone (RSX ~$130 + Cell ~$90 = $220, all of 360 CPU + I/O chips + system board + 512MB system memory + Xenos (all of it) = $205). I'm not a hardware manufacturing analyst, but even I can clearly tell that something's clearly wrong. They're either drastically underestimating the cost of the internal pieces of the 360 or overestimating the cost of the PS3.

 

[kaching]

yes it is very relavent for talking about scaleability etc. i just don't think any of those things are relevant for saying whether or not the system is priced correctly.

But they didn't say anything about it being priced "correctly".

 

[plagiarize]

Not only that, they have the Cell + RSX costing more than the entire processing core of the 360 alone (RSX ~$130 + Cell ~$90 = $220, all of 360 CPU + I/O chips + system board + 512MB system memory + Xenos (all of it) = $205). I'm not a hardware manufacturing analyst, but even I can clearly tell that something's clearly wrong. They're either drastically underestimating the cost of the internal pieces of the 360 or overestimating the cost of the PS3.

the only bit that looked wrong to me, was that the two 20gig hard drives were counted as the same price. it seems like all the enclosures and mountings are accounted for in the ps3 and the 360's hard drive naturally has a more complicated enclosure than the ps3s.

i didn't mention it because i figured you'd only be talking about a couple of bucks though, that won't exactly impact the totals much.

 

[Dahbomb]

So this article basically confirms that the 60gb is a rip off over the 20gb version since we are being charged $100 more instead of being charged $40 more.

You heard it here first, 20GB PS3 > 60GB PS3 in terms of value.

 

[plagiarize]

But they didn't say anything about it being priced "correctly".

i think 'bargain' infers that they think it's under priced.

 

[davepoobond]

i guess that confirms that bluray is only about half the "200" dollar figure people keep throwin around when they say the thing woulda been cheaper without bluray.

 

[Lord Error]

I think when their talking about the motherboard, there actually talking about all the parts, which include the cpu and the video processor.

Yeah, I know that. Still, even when factor time difference, the CPU and GPU for both consoles come from roughly the same time and use simillar manufacturing processes. I just don't see anything on PS3 motherboard that could be so much more expensive than X360 motherboard.

 

[Stinkles]

I'd trust this over any gaffers assessment of cost. That's all isuppli does is assess cost of components. They tear down hardware and price it, and they've been doing it for years.

Some of you guys are way to quick to criticize.

I would trust any GAFer's assesment over some random dude who works in the business of knowing how much this stuff costs. Anyway, his breakdown may be guesswork, but most of the analysts here and in Japan have guessed similar numbers, and it's not like Sony's going to break it down for us. So let's just call it what it is - educated guesswork. And neither breakdown factors in marketing - one of the biggest costs for a hardware launch.

 

[kaching]

i think 'bargain' infers that they think it's under priced.

Which still says nothing about whether they think it's priced correctly. But it is being sold significantly under cost, based on their analysis. That's the definition of a bargain in most quarters, saying nothing about whether that actually makes it affordable to any given person.