IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Speaking to GamingBolt in a recent interview, Pachter said that given the cost of making a PS5, combined with the additional money Sony makes per every digital game sold, they are still taking a loss on each PS5 Digital Edition sold. Pachter says that the average consumer won’t buy the number of games that they’ll need to recoup the losses on a PS5 Digital Edition.
“I think Sony really blew it with that, because as far as we can tell, the cost of making a PlayStation 5 is $450, so they are breaking even on the $500 version, but losing $40 or so on the digital version,” he said. “A disc drive isn’t worth that much. So they’re losing $40, but they gain $6 more per digital game than they would gain otherwise. So you would have to buy a lot of games to cover up the loss, and I just think it’s unlikely many will buy that many games.”
The analyst went on to say that most consumers will still end up purchasing the main PS5 SKU with a disc drive in order to have that option, before adding that Sony will likely make and sell fewer digital consoles.
“I actually don’t think many consumers will want to save the money, I think most would rather have the disc drive on hand so they have the option to take their game to their friend’s house or trade it in or whatever,” Pachter said. “So I think they blew it with the Digital Edition, but it’s hard to tell early numbers, because it’s all sold out anyway, and we don’t know how many of each they made. But I think over the long run, they’ll sell and make fewer digital editions.”