PS5
Credit: SonyWell, we finally got some next-gen hardware news: the first time since the PS5 reveal that we’ve gotten new, large-scale concrete information from either Microsoft or Sony about next-gen consoles. Microsoft has now officially unveiled its lower cost “Xbox Series S”, formerly known as Project Lockhart. It’s a handy little machine at $299, and it should be far and away the cheapest next-gen console on offer in the fall.
Windows Central has also reported that the Xbox Series X price point will be $499, which is about what we expected. That’s not official, but Windows Central is a solid source and half of this story has already been confirmed, so I’m comfortable going with it. So that’s the likely price breakdown for Microsoft’s two next-gen consoles: $299/499.
And with that, we think about Sony. We still don’t know the price of the PS5, but the company has got to go ahead with it soon, and it has at least a little more information to work off of now that Microsoft has one official price. Like Microsoft, Sony will have two prices to reveal: it has a version of PS5 with a disc drive and one without, both with the same essential specs beyond that.
PS5s
Credit: sonySo there are a couple different ways this could go. I would wager that the price discrepancy between the two versions will be either $50 or $100, with anything lower or higher than that feeling pretty ridiculous. And I would also bet that at least one of Sony’s consoles will hit price parity with the Xbox Series X at $499. So if we take those things as a given, we’re left with 4 different pricing scenarios for Sony’s two PS5s:
Scenario #1 : $549/$499. This one isn’t a home run for Sony, but it’s not so bad either. A $50 price discrepancy is close enough that people can think of the disc drive and discless PS5 in the same breath and then just decide how important physical media is to them. Pricing the disc drive version above the Xbox Series X wouldn’t be ideal, but again, only $50 is probably enough that it won’t be the biggest deal.
Scenario #2: $499/449. This is a good one. A $499 disc drive PS5 would achieve parity with Xbox Series X, with just enough of a discount for the discless version to turn a head or two. With the Series S in the mix, Sony obviously can’t have the cheapest console this generation. But it can have the cheapest high-end console, and $449 for a discless PS5 would allow it to achieve that with minimal pain.
Scenario #3: $599/$499. This is probably the worst of all scenarios for PlayStation. While we still get price parity with the Xbox Series X for the discless machine, Microsoft gets to hit that price with a disc drive included, and that’s good for marketing. Here, the $599 console looks wildly overpriced compared to the rest of the field. The $499 console looks better, but the Series S means it can’t position itself as a “budget” console, either.
Scenario #4: $499/$399. The last scenario was the worst, but this would unquestionably be the best. If Sony is somehow able to get the discless version down to $399, it means that it can achieve parity with the disc drive version and point to an impressive price advantage over the Series X with the discless version. It even takes the wind out of the sails of Series S a little bit by showing consumers just how much more they can get for an extra $100.
We’ll see! I would expect things to move a little more quickly now that Microsoft has gotten the ball rolling. I don’t expect to see something this week, but right now we can feasibly get our hopes up for, say, next week. Once all these machines have prices and release dates, I think we can finally say that we’re done with the longest E3 in history.
The Link LonkSeptember 08, 2020 at 07:59PM
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PS5 Price: 4 Different Ways Sony Could Respond To Xbox Series S And X - Forbes
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