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Sony Is Struggling With PlayStation 5 Price Due to Costly Parts

This gen is not different. The hardware doesn't change what people are willing to pay. If it did, everyone would have high-end PCs. Let me put it this way. Nobody is going to spend an extra $100 because it has GDDR6. Nobody. The fact that it has a SSD doesn’t matter if it is priced too high. If Sony built a console too expensive for the market, that is Sony’s problem, not the market’s (a lesson Sony learned on PS3). People will pay what they pay. The tech doesn’t matter. For a $500 console, Sony has to do something nobody has ever done, convince people to spend $500 on a console. And you don’t do that by touting specs. Maybe this is the gen people buy $500 consoles, but "muh SSD" is not going to be why. It’s just not something that drives sales. Anyone who wants to sacrifice for more power can build a PC, and lots of people do.

PS3 was 2006, though

I don’t get why this keeps getting recycled.
 
Oh boy

giphy.gif


just put me on ignore, Mana. Serious
 
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Calling Flight Simulator 'boring', thinking 343i should not be allowed to make games(still calling MCC 'Broken Chief collection'), Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Tokyo Mirage Sessions are trash, The first thread he made after leaving the stadia camp was to make a 343i hate thread.

Maybe Flight Simulator is boring because it doesn't have rockets and also for some MCC is still "broken". That's why 343i left a bitter taste in the mouth of many. Maybe he is a Stadia fan. :)

Anyway, bunch of Xbox fans really was pissed because MCC and still are.

Yeah, Voost kain surely didn't joined PS camp. Just check his post history in last few weeks. Surely any of his previous doesn't imply that he joined
 
Agree, there are informations supporting both (single and double digits), so nothing is certain until MS and Sony will finally reaveal specs. But no matter if next gen consoles will be 8TF or 12TF developers willl still make great games on both.

When it comes to your GT3 and GT4 example. I think from technical point of view PGR2 or Ralli Sport 2 was on totally different league, but GT3-GT4 looked more pleasing to my eyes because of realistic art direction and interesting tricks. For example cars in gran turismo had very dark windows, so polyphony could build car models with much less polygons, and these cars still looked good.

Yeah, GT has always had an art style advantage over similar games for the longest time now. I remember when GT6 and the then-recent Forza game were being revealed, and remembered preferring GT6 because the colors seemed more lifelike. Conversely, at the time thought the then-new Forza's colors were too saturated, like they were going for a glossed-up action film vibe.

However I've become very partial to the evolution of art style in the latter Forza games so I'm really looking forward to what FM8 will bring in that department because we already know on technical level it'll be really good. But yeah, the previous GT games up to GT6 I'd say, almost unparalleled art direction and color grading techniques. Those made up for a lot of the shortcomings on the technical side but I think competitor franchises (mainly Forza) have just about caught up to it on that front.
 

June

Member
I find it hard to believe the PS5 will be over $399-$429 considering how important that price point was for the PS4 and the disaster that the high price of the PS3 caused. Not to mention these are estimates done on today's price and not on when this thing will release. Member when everyone was surprissed about 8gb GDDR5?

I don't buy it.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
I find it hard to believe the PS5 will be over $399-$429 considering how important that price point was for the PS4 and the disaster that the high price of the PS3 caused. Not to mention these are estimates done on today's price and not on when this thing will release. Member when everyone was surprissed about 8gb GDDR5?

I don't buy it.

Even though the console is releasing later this year, manufacturing has to begin soon to hit that date.
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
I'm not an 'xboy', I'm a realist. Don't have stock in either company so could care less about which one's making more money 'cuz I'm not seeing a dime from either of them xD. DVDs outsold Blu-Ray this year by 16%, go look at the data. I'm sorry any commentary based in realism when it comes to Sony irritates you, but that's not my problem.

PS3 wiped out all PS1 & PS2 profits and the Blu-Ray drive was one of the biggest reasons for that. That's what I mean when I say it was a pyrrhic victory: it came at many heavy losses in other areas. The trajectory looked good for Blu-Ray anyway even if PS3 did not have a unit built-in, because the 360 did not have HD-DVD built-in either, and studios were already backing Blu-Ray moreso without PS3 factoring into the picture.
Sony's PS3 was a major help in that fight vs hddvd.
 

DrAspirino

Banned
MS is in a financial position to do harm to Sony if they decide to loss lead @ $399 as Sony would be forced to lose a lot per unit to stay on par and let's face it Sony doesn't have the financial resources to weather that storm as well. But I'm not sure MS really even wants to harm Sony at this point. With how the market is shifting MS & Sony are going to potentially be more allies than rivals in the not too distant future. I don't think hurting Sony in this way would be worth the small units sold advantage it might give them. And although it helps the consumer with a lower entry point price it reduces Sony's resources to spend on other improvements to the service and game production.

Both selling at $499 makes the most sense.
Sony and Microsoft are already allies, since Microsoft is providing it's Azure infrastructure service to Sony. If Microsoft takes an agressive pricing strategy, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot, because Sony wouldn't have the resources to pay for the Azure service.

Indeed, both selling at $499, at this point, is practically a given.
 

ZehDon

Member
People forget that OG PS3 cost 900 USD to manufacture and they sold it for 600 USD.
And that move cost Sony literally all of the money they made from the PS1 and the PS2. The PS4 was made using a bespoke solution from existing x86 to ensure that that level of disparity was impossible. I doubt they’d unlearn that lesson.

Sony might very well take a USD$60 hit on the hardware to hit the $399 sweet spot. The rub here is we don’t know if Microsoft simply has a better manufacturing deal - given they were first to unveil, they seem pretty confident in delivering their hardware from further out than Sony does, who’ve gone radio silent.

Either Sony’s got a little magic in the works - their gamble on GDDR5 was an unbelievable win for the PS4, remember - or Microsoft might be able to catch a lucky break, where they can deliver the rumoured 12tflops at the same price point as Sony’s rumoured 9tflops.
 

TLZ

Banned
Im gona say this on my own behalf and heres what im gona say

The PS5 will do just fine with a $500 pricetag

I dont understand why so many people are so scared with $500

$500 is easy money even for poor folks like me
Yea but.... That's $750 - $800 Australian dollars :messenger_downcast_sweat:
 

pawel86ck

Banned
I find it hard to believe the PS5 will be over $399-$429 considering how important that price point was for the PS4 and the disaster that the high price of the PS3 caused. Not to mention these are estimates done on today's price and not on when this thing will release. Member when everyone was surprissed about 8gb GDDR5?

I don't buy it.
I bought launch PS3 (599 euro). IMO PS3 price was still acceptable. The real problem was 200$ loss on each console (wayy too big loss for sony) and PS3 wasnt even much better compared to cheaper xbox 360 (400 euro), in fact multiplatform games run and looked better on PS3.

If PS5 would deliver awesome performance and games Sony can ask even 599$ for their console and it will be still successful.
 

June

Member
If PS5 would deliver awesome performance and games Sony can ask even 599$ for their console and it will be still successful.

I think this viewpoint is a bit deluded considering how these past 2 gens played out.
The late launch and high price of PS3 is what enabled 360 to gain solid position even after the domination PS2 had.
Then the reverse happened this gen and, coupled with the bad press of DRM, the PS4 strode way ahead again.

$599 would be horrible for PS5.

I think both companies must have learned their lessons from these past couple of gens so they'll be aiming for $450 max.

I personally predict $399-$429.
 
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TLZ

Banned
Maybe its better to wait for a year, or you can preorder from online stores like amazon

I supposed it will be much cheaper there
I don't think it'll be cheaper than that on release if it's US$500. And if that happens I probably will have to wait a year or more before buying.

I'll have to see what features the PS5 will have first. If it does play all my PS4 games at better res and framerates, I might buy. So it'll depend mostly on BC for me.
 

pawel86ck

Banned
I think this viewpoint is a bit deluded considering how these past 2 gens played out.
The late launch and high price of PS3 is what enabled 360 to gain solid position even after the domination PS2 had.
Then the reverse happened this gen and, coupled with the bad press of DRM, the PS4 strode way ahead again.

$599 would be horrible for PS5.

I think both companies must have learned their lessons from these past couple of gens so they'll be aiming for $450 max.

I personally predict $399-$429.
Yes, PS3 launched one year later compared to xbox360 and back then one year in technology was like 5 years currently. I have bought PS3 launch model at 599 euro and I was pissed not because of PS3 price (599$ was still really affordable anywy) but simply because Sony underdelivered! Multiplatform games run and looked better on cheaper xbox 360.

No wonder Sony was forced to rebuild PS3 and cut the price, because their console wasnt much better product compared to x360. People can pay more for better product, but to for the same or worse product.
 

June

Member
Yes, PS3 launched one year later compared to xbox360 and back then one year in technology was like 5 years currently. I have bought PS3 launch model at 599 euro and I was pissed not because of PS3 price (599$ was still really affordable anywy) but simply because Sony underdelivered! Multiplatform games run and looked better on cheaper xbox 360.

No wonder Sony was forced to rebuild PS3 and cut the price, because their console wasnt much better product compared to x360. People can pay more for better product, but to for the same or worse product.

How you personally value money doesn't really matter. It's about the market and 599$ would be a huge blow.

I feel you though. I bought a PS3 at launch here in Europe (March I think?) and ended up selling it by christmas and picking up a 360. I still recall the horror of having to quit the game you're playing just to be able to reply to messages. 360 had the online and system features held down that gen.
 
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newtonfb

Member
How is it we live in a world where cell phones are $1,000+ for top end...$300 for mid range specs but $500 for a console you get once every 7 years is crazy? New video cards for PC go for atleast $300 but ppl want a whole box to sell for $399!?
I honestly can't believe these boxes aren't atleast $600.
 
How is it we live in a world where cell phones are $1,000+ for top end...$300 for mid range specs but $500 for a console you get once every 7 years is crazy? New video cards for PC go for atleast $300 but ppl want a whole box to sell for $399!?
I honestly can't believe these boxes aren't atleast $600.

The reply you will get from people is "oh but the phone does so much more". Even though for the past 10 years people buy a $1000 phone every year to use watsup, fb, ig and to play candy crush...oh and sometimes take a call.
 

TLZ

Banned
Maybe its better to wait for a year, or you can preorder from online stores like amazon

I supposed it will be much cheaper there
I forgot to add, exchange rate will play a big role too. If it's as bad as it is now or gets worse, I'm more likely to wait.

How is it we live in a world where cell phones are $1,000+ for top end...$300 for mid range specs but $500 for a console you get once every 7 years is crazy? New video cards for PC go for atleast $300 but ppl want a whole box to sell for $399!?
I honestly can't believe these boxes aren't atleast $600.
The reply you will get from people is "oh but the phone does so much more". Even though for the past 10 years people buy a $1000 phone every year to use watsup, fb, ig and to play candy crush...oh and sometimes take a call.
Well most people don't buy outright and get plans. I suppose they can make the consoles more expensive but put them on plans as well?
 

zombrex

Member
They should price it at $499. The hardcore enthusiasts are going to buy it at launch regardless of price and availability of killer titles. Better to take that profit at launch then bring the price down later if necessary.
 

magnumpy

Member
oh boo-hoo you retarded baby stfu

how is this different from any other console launch? I guess it could be like the PS3 launch. in which case, good luck what do you want engraved on your tombstone from now until the end of time? maybe it should be a joke. "why did the chicken cross the road?" and then it just cuts off there with no punchline. a suitably disappointing let down :(

who needs Sony anyway. if Sony can't handle it then there's Microsoft. if not hem then there's Nintendo. or AMD, who developed all this technology anyway. bow before your master Sony! congratulations on developing the "PS5" logo, that must have been a lot of work will you be ok? :lollipop_astonished:
 
Sony's PS3 was a major help in that fight vs hddvd.

Not denying that, but it's still a pyrrhic victory. PS3 was pretty much a case of Sony sacrificing PS's primary role as a game console in favor of multimedia. Instead of focusing on building it as an ultimate gaming platform for its time, it was used as a vehicle to push a medium for a battle in a completely separate industry.

This could even be extended to the Cell in a sense; it wasn't specifically designed with gaming in mind, trying to chase after MANY different markets. They did customize the processor for more gaming-focused loads on PS3, but because they foolishly tried using it as the GPU as well, that wasted time and resources. It's what forced them to go with the gimped Nvidia GPU and they never had enough time to design a unified memory pool due to that.

So yeah, PS3 helped Blu-Ray win the format war, but it (plus Cell and hubris) costed PS pretty much half its marketshare, wiped out all PS1 & PS2 profits, and a system that took longer than its competition to mature for 3rd parties. The best goodwill towards PS3 came from 2011 onward, because that's when Sony was able to exploit MS's negligence of the core market (they were too focused on Kinect). The goodwill they gained from 2011-2013 is what helped PS4 primarily.
 

baphomet

Member
Its not a rumor. It’s a news article with confidential sources from a well recognized news outlet with an editorial staff and a general counsel that would never let that story run if it weren’t verified.

Fucking lol.

This article is full of bullshit.
 

thelastword

Banned
So many people arguing about $400-$500

You guys mustve be broke af

I probably spent over than $ 7000-8000 in a month and that include traveling cost, food and everything

$500 is piece of cake
Sorry Monster, I think console gamers cry way too much about price and are whiny way too much by year 3 in the gen saying. we need more power......Do these people even remember that prior to PS and XBOX some consoles were priced at $1000+?......People cry way too much for price, yet the same people who want consoles to launch at $299-399 want Dual 3080ti's with Ryzen 8000 CPU's, 4Tb Flash Nand and 64 GB's of ram......They are the first to say "these consoles are weak next to my PC'...….

I only chuckled because "how you explained it" reminds me of Chad Warden......Stay Ballin or go home......
 

pawel86ck

Banned
How you personally value money doesn't really matter. It's about the market and 599$ would be a huge blow.

I feel you though. I bought a PS3 at launch here in Europe (March I think?) and ended up selling it by christmas and picking up a 360. I still recall the horror of having to quit the game you're playing just to be able to reply to messages. 360 had the online and system features held down that gen.
Of course I can understand for some people even 400$ is already too much because there are countries with 400$ salaries, and people also need to eat something and pay the bills. At the same time there are also countries with 2000-3000 euro salaries, so depending where you live 400 $ / euro console can be considered expensive or cheap. Life is unfair, that's for sure.

But I really think 599$ in not much in 5 years perspective (that's 10$ for one month). Gamepass ultimate can be more expensive than 599$ console itself. People think 15$ each month is cheap, but if you want to pay 15$ for the next 5 years it's 900$ already.
 

VertigoOA

Banned
Concerns of Ps5 being underpowered compared to Series X grows.

They’re giving me more reasons to go with Xbox next gen. Would be a huge fail if true.

The price difference isn’t what made me choose a PS4 over a Xbox One. It was the PS4 being the more powerful machine.
 
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baphomet

Member
You not liking the news changes nothing. This is a recognized news outlet that could easily be sued by Sony for libel. Sony has neither denied the story nor asked for a retraction as far as we know. Until Sony does that, the reporting is sound and the information should be taken as accurate. Take your emotions out of it.

You're not at all familiar with how the news works are you?
 

Elenchus

Banned
You're not at all familiar with how the news works are you?

I know that news articles are frequently published with information from confidential sources. It nothing new and is a recognized practice for journalists.

Political reporting wouldn’t even exist without it.

Maybe you should educate yourself before you speak next time.

 
You're not at all familiar with how the news works are you?

This isn't about politics, so there's no reason to imply "fake news". The poster is correct; if these places are spreading false information as FUD, they can be sued. Retractions can be issued, etc. And they generally come pretty swiftly.

It's not like the article is being outright negative or anything, it's merely addressing possible DRAM and NAND concerns such as pricing and order amounts. The article isn't trying to slander Sony or PS5.
 

Dane

Member
Not denying that, but it's still a pyrrhic victory. PS3 was pretty much a case of Sony sacrificing PS's primary role as a game console in favor of multimedia. Instead of focusing on building it as an ultimate gaming platform for its time, it was used as a vehicle to push a medium for a battle in a completely separate industry.

This could even be extended to the Cell in a sense; it wasn't specifically designed with gaming in mind, trying to chase after MANY different markets. They did customize the processor for more gaming-focused loads on PS3, but because they foolishly tried using it as the GPU as well, that wasted time and resources. It's what forced them to go with the gimped Nvidia GPU and they never had enough time to design a unified memory pool due to that.

So yeah, PS3 helped Blu-Ray win the format war, but it (plus Cell and hubris) costed PS pretty much half its marketshare, wiped out all PS1 & PS2 profits, and a system that took longer than its competition to mature for 3rd parties. The best goodwill towards PS3 came from 2011 onward, because that's when Sony was able to exploit MS's negligence of the core market (they were too focused on Kinect). The goodwill they gained from 2011-2013 is what helped PS4 primarily.

IMO, the biggest problem was PS3 engineering, not the fact it had multimedia capabilities. Cell was just too complex and at the end of the day it wasn't even worth, the X360 hardware came too close even on the best examples on Sony's console.

The Blu Ray drive was something obvious to happen (one of PS2 key strong sales was being a cheap DVD player too), what happened is that by the time it was really taking off, the streaming services were coming in big, no to mention the price difference, especially in Brazil, the BD movies cost twice as DVD (and it took years to have local printing, it was 4x more expensive before). there's zero incentive to own a Blu Ray PC drive as PC gaming was dying until Steam came in and even the physical releases are still on DVD, not to mention the *cough cough, piracy on CD and DVD-R that was rampant, something that BD-R never had chance.
 
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Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
This isn't about politics, so there's no reason to imply "fake news". The poster is correct; if these places are spreading false information as FUD, they can be sued. Retractions can be issued, etc. And they generally come pretty swiftly.

It's not like the article is being outright negative or anything, it's merely addressing possible DRAM and NAND concerns such as pricing and order amounts. The article isn't trying to slander Sony or PS5.

Exactly. As I pointed out earlier the only reason this is noteworthy is that Playstation is a relatively significant segment of Sony's overall earnings, and so anything that impacts their future plans is of interest to investors. In the case of Xbox, its of nowhere near the same relevance to MS' overall, and so its of less interest even if the same phenomenon affects them.

The reality is that this component issue is likely to affect number of units manufactured initially and/or the margin per unit sold-through. Which in turn will have an impact on short-term income.

If you actually bother to read the article you'll note that basically its all meaningless hearsay anyway until Sony issues their guidance in April.
 

gspat

Member
Why would they do that? They have 40 million Plus subscribers on 105 million PS4.
It gets them out of the gate running? Also drops the perceived retail to right around $399 USD?

If they do 6 months of each they could promote it as a "Try the entire PS Ecosystem" thing. Odds are most people wouldn't make use of one or the other so it would end up costing them nothing for at least a portion. Entering a free voucher code doesn't mean you'll use the service.

Conversely, people could sell the vouchers to get some cash back.
 

Shin

Banned
I find it hard to believe the PS5 will be over $399-$429 considering how important that price point was for the PS4 and the disaster that the high price of the PS3 caused. Not to mention these are estimates done on today's price and not on when this thing will release. Member when everyone was surprissed about 8gb GDDR5?

I don't buy it.
That doesn't have anything to do with a platform holder TBH, not even Samsung I reckon but more about the fab and initial plans in place (that's why you see companies say Q2 or Q3, 3 month windows).
Samsung like any other company have a road-map with their plans/products laid out, the timing was just impeccable and Sony reaped the profit off it.
Throughout the years I keep seeing people bring it up like it's something that magically fell from the sky or Sony flipping a switch and 4GB became 8 overnight.

As for the $399 price I don't see it being doable, because Sony as hell won't be using only 8GB so there goes maybe 2x the cost (more lik 1.7-1.8x) on memory.
Then there'll most likely be changes to the cooling system as PS4 and Pro taught them (along with users complaining, etc etc) that the system is too loud.
All things considered I'm thinking $499 retail, perhaps $50 margin for the retailers, Sony will eat $50-80 loss for packaging, shipping, storage, etc etc.
 
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S0ULZB0URNE

Member
Not denying that, but it's still a pyrrhic victory. PS3 was pretty much a case of Sony sacrificing PS's primary role as a game console in favor of multimedia. Instead of focusing on building it as an ultimate gaming platform for its time, it was used as a vehicle to push a medium for a battle in a completely separate industry.

This could even be extended to the Cell in a sense; it wasn't specifically designed with gaming in mind, trying to chase after MANY different markets. They did customize the processor for more gaming-focused loads on PS3, but because they foolishly tried using it as the GPU as well, that wasted time and resources. It's what forced them to go with the gimped Nvidia GPU and they never had enough time to design a unified memory pool due to that.

So yeah, PS3 helped Blu-Ray win the format war, but it (plus Cell and hubris) costed PS pretty much half its marketshare, wiped out all PS1 & PS2 profits, and a system that took longer than its competition to mature for 3rd parties. The best goodwill towards PS3 came from 2011 onward, because that's when Sony was able to exploit MS's negligence of the core market (they were too focused on Kinect). The goodwill they gained from 2011-2013 is what helped PS4 primarily.
Helped Blu-Ray win the format war... had AMAZING High rated exclusives,came out a year after the 360,cost more and still ended up in 2nd place behind the wii. Not 2 shabby I say...
 

Max_Po

Banned
I think 499 is still better than 599.

If components are 450, they are definitely taking a hit on manufacturing/shipping cost.
 

darkinstinct

...lacks reading comprehension.
How is it we live in a world where cell phones are $1,000+ for top end...$300 for mid range specs but $500 for a console you get once every 7 years is crazy? New video cards for PC go for atleast $300 but ppl want a whole box to sell for $399!?
I honestly can't believe these boxes aren't atleast $600.

Most people use their phone 12 hours a day. Most people use their console an hour a day.
 

darkinstinct

...lacks reading comprehension.
It gets them out of the gate running? Also drops the perceived retail to right around $399 USD?

If they do 6 months of each they could promote it as a "Try the entire PS Ecosystem" thing. Odds are most people wouldn't make use of one or the other so it would end up costing them nothing for at least a portion. Entering a free voucher code doesn't mean you'll use the service.

Conversely, people could sell the vouchers to get some cash back.

But they could just launch at 399 if that was the issue. Either they are losing $60 per console on hardware or they are losing $60 per console on software. In that case it makes more sense to just launch at the lower price because you actually look cheaper. For 65 million PS4 owners PS+ offers no value. So why would the $460 console look better to them with Plus included?

And those are US prices. A $450 BOM means that it's going to be 549 € in Europe. $450 is 415 €, 20 % sales tax = 498 + retailer margin plus distribution. They might do 499 € ... but then the US subsidizes the EU price. Meaning even less options to lower the base price.
 
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