Let’s not beat around the bush, the PlayStation 4’s price point was a bit of shock. While we’d heard inklings that the company was going to price its next generation system much lower than previous efforts, very few imagined that it would hit $399.99. And that’s prompted some pundits to question whether the company is taking a large financial hit in order to achieve such an impressive feat. According to PlayStation president Andrew House, though, the “financial backbone” surrounding the console couldn’t be healthier.
“People obviously look to comparisons on the PlayStation 3, which was a very tough financial proposition for us in the early stages,” the executive said in an interview with the BBC. “We are in a very, very different state with the PS4, and I think that our financial backbone around the platform, and around the ecosystem that we’re building, will be much healthier, much earlier in the lifecycle than we’ve seen previously.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean that the console won’t be costing the company money out of the gate, but House insinuates that it’s only going to be a temporary loss. Honestly, we’re a little bit in awe of how well this platform’s been designed. It’s going to be a really exciting year for the brand. Bring on that holiday launch.
[source bbc.co.uk]
Comments 10
well hope ps4 comes to asia
Yeah, I'm still impressed w/ the $399 price tag for what you get after the $599 PS3.
My guess is PS3 cost a lot for the new blu-ray drives and laptop HDD and all the money put into cell R&D. Now they have little R&D for off-the-shelf parts and a steady supply of blu-ray drives and HDD. I'm guessing the PS4 w/ use the same 500GB HDD as the PS3 though I think I read the blu-ray drive was improved, but probably still cheaper than in 2007.
Oh, and before all the PC do-it-yourselfers complain how $399 is a rip-off for the hardware and you can build a better PC cheaper, it still comes w/ a newly designed DS4 and an OS. I know you can put Linux for free on a PC but it doesn't play a lot of games, PS4 or otherwise.
Guess Sony is planning on a lot of PS+ subs for DriveClub.
@rjejr Good one rjejr, the elite PC fanboys always claim that their pc is superior. PC needs drivers and drivers need windows OS. Windows OS sucks up a lot of power:D
@rjejr Yeah, they also had to manufacture the CELL themselves because it was so exotic. The incredible thing is that even though the hardware was an extortionate $599, I seem to recall it was costing Sony like $800 to manufacture, so they were still losing loads of money.
@rjejr I think you hit the nail on the head. All that R&D that was put into the PS3 probably paid off for the PS4. To me, that's what I want in a company, take a product, know what works and build off of that model, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel all the time.
@Rogue76 - Well actually... as much as it pains me to disagree w/ somebody who just agreed w/ me, Sony is throwing CELL away - where most of their R&D money went - and working w/ off the shelf PC parts for PS4, thats why they are saving money. So at least they did learn from their mistake of trying to develop their own chip and now they are just using somebody elses stuff. Basically the same stuff in the X1 and low to mid-range PC. Though the rest of the stuff - blu-ray, HDD - is there. (I'm still mad no optical or ethernet on WiiU)
Important thing for us is - PS4 for $399. And that's the bottom line.
oh...well....didn't realize that haha...I understand now
argh, I'm too addicted to this site, didn't see the news that's been floating around all day that the PS Eye is sold separately for $59. That's 2/3 of the difference w/ X1 price. I know most people hate Move but Jack Tretton mentioned Skype during that presentation. I'm almost sure of it.
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/06/specs-sheet-says-ps4-has-500gb-hard-drive-camera-not-included/
They built a Move sensor into the DS4 and the camera is in every photo I've seen but it's sold separately? Guess that explains why we didn't see any more of Media Molcules 3D bulding thing.
Oh well, win some lose some I guess.
Win - $399
Lose - PS+ for multiplayer, $59 camera
This is why I haven't picked an E3 winner yet.
Edit: last point. I know you all hate Move, but some of you were probably looking forward to "shooting" things in Killzone.
Once I am done paying for college it will be all mine!
Let's not kid ourselves, 399 still isn't very cheap. But it's better than what the competition is offering, so at least Sony has better value for money.
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