PlayStation 3 Pricing Revealed?

Jakhel writes "IGN has up an article on PS3 pricing information. Apparently it comes straight from Sony officials. From the article: 'According an article published in the May 17th edition of Japan's Mainichi Shimbun, the PlayStation 3 could be one of the most expensive mass-market videogame consoles ever created. Officials from Sony apparently told the newspaper that PlayStation 3s would sell in Japan for "less than 50,000 yen each." That translates to about $465 US dollars.' So I guess they will be around $464.99 in the U.S. (plus tax of course). Granted, it does come with DVD Hi Def support out of the box, but is that enough to justify it's nearly $500 pricetag?" Commentary on this development available at GamesIndustry.biz as well.

Comments

Bargain

[Satertek]

Judging based on processing power, thats a bargain. It would cost in excess of $2,000 to get a comperable PC system. (Which don't even exist yet)

The "mainstream" console players, however, may find it harder to justify the higher price tag. Especially if the XBox 360 retails for a couple hundred less.

Re:Bargain

[ultramk]

Judging based on processing power, thats a bargain. It would cost in excess of $2,000 to get a comperable PC system. (Which don't even exist yet)

Of course, a finished, working PS3 doesn't exist now either. In a year and a half, who knows?
m-

Probably Still Worth It.

[xombo]

I'm sad to say that even with a $150 price difference than the expected price of the Xbox 360, the PS3 sounds to be a lot more bang for the buck. It's like comparing the DS to the PSP. I've owned both and frankly I wish I'd of saved my $150 from the DS to buy more PSP games.

Re:Probably Still Worth It.

[Rayonic]

the PS3 sounds to be a lot more bang for the buck

From the specs released, the Xbox360 and PS3 sound kinda the same for now. You've got to understand that Sony has a history of severely over-hyping the power of their upcoming console. Furthermore, until we see more detailed specs, we're not sure what bottlenecks might arise in the PS3's architecture.

Re:Probably Still Worth It.

[snorklewacker]

The bottleneck in the PS2 architecture is quite easy to point out: it has no GPU, only a very primitive "Graphic Synthesizer", which simply accellerates some raster ops on a framebuffer. Even then it STILL manages to hold nearly even with the XBox, even with half the RAM and a slower CPU (though with a 128 bit bus that could have made up for it).

I have no doubt that Sony has greatly overhyped the PS3, and that the two consoles are quite close in real world performance. However, Sony has certainly removed the old bottleneck.

And starting at 1080p is certainly a draw for me. 'course, I'm going to have to run it through my monitor for a while instead of my TV .. of course if there's no VGA out, then I guess I'll have to invest in a scan converter as well.

Re:Probably Still Worth It.

[bluk]

It's not just about the graphical power tho (admittedly, that's what will get the most attention). PS3 has better compatibility with memory cards, WiFi built in, bluetooth controllers (so you can have wireless keyboards and not just the USB), HDMI outputs (2 at that), etc. These are all out of the box and immediately noticable even if you don't use them. The only thing missing is the HDD.

It just seems that the Xbox 360 is an evolutionary upgrade, which is perfectly fine since the Xbox still could have had a lot of life left. However, the PS3 seems to have added so many more new features that it has the hype all over it as being a true next generation machine beyond the graphics. The PS3 seems to be the machine that will last 5 years instead of a rushed solution.

Re:Probably Still Worth It.

[Rylz]

If they want to make the console more expensive fine, but the only way to win me back would be to lower the price of the games....

Sadly, the price of a console and the price of games for it are fairly directly related. If the console costs more, it follows that it should be more powerful, so the games for it probably cost more to make than they would on a lower-end console. This cost is, of course, made up for by charging more for the game.

less than 50,000 yen

[Naikrovek]

that means LESS than $465. It is probably just someone saying the equivalent of "my car cost less than $100k." True statement, vague though.

I don't expect to see the PS3 come down at $450. If I were a betting man I'd say $299.

Re:less than 50,000 yen

[Daetrin]

that means LESS than $465. It is probably just someone saying the equivalent of "my car cost less than $100k." True statement, vague though.

I don't expect to see the PS3 come down at $450. If I were a betting man I'd say $299.

This is elementary marketing, you _must_ have run into it before. When touting your own product you want to make it seem as cheap as possible, so you pick how much it costs (or how much you think it will cost) add a tiny increment, and say it costs less than that.

If a store advertises that they have something for "less than $10" you can be pretty sure it will cost $9.99. That's certainly what a "betting man" would go with. Also note that there is a certain amount of psychology in the "look" of the price. Subtracting one cent has a greater psychological effect than the actual price difference merits, especially when you you're talking about a psychologically significant barrier such as $1, $10, $100 or $1000, and to a lesser extent $5, $25, $50, and any other multiple of 10 or 100.

If Sony _knew_ they were going to sell it at $299 they would be saying "less than $300" (or whatever the yen equivalent of that is.) The fact that they're not saying that indicates they think there is a reasonably strong possibility that it will cost more than that.

Re:less than 50,000 yen

[badasscat]

that means LESS than $465. It is probably just someone saying the equivalent of "my car cost less than $100k." True statement, vague though.

I was going to post this exact thing - the fact is Sony probably doesn't know what the pricing is going to be yet. But there is an obvious ceiling that they can point to and say "we're pretty confident we can bring the costs in below this number". That doesn't mean they won't be able to bring them down even further, and it doesn't mean they won't choose to sell the system at even more of a loss in a grab for market share.

We don't know the original context for this. (As a side note, I don't know why the blurb here links to IGN - the official translation of the original article is on the Mainichi web site here, if you want to see the source for this.) We don't know what was said in the original Japanese interview (there's no actual quote here, it's all paraphrased) and we don't know what question was asked of Sony. It could have been something like "how much would you need to sell a PS3 for to turn a profit?" for all we know.

My guess is the PS3 will be priced to compete with the Xbox 360; whatever the Xbox is at, the PS3 will be at.

Also keep in mind that pricing in Japan and the US rarely correlates directly on game consoles. The disconnect can be upwards of $100 in some cases.

Re:less than 50,000 yen

[ivan256]

There's also a time honored marketing tradition of making your device seem like it's worth a ton more than it is by saying things like "there's $1000 worth of computing power in there," etc... So that when it hits the market and only costs $350 everybody thinks they're getting a bargain.

If Sony knew it were going to sell for $299, they sure as hell wouldn't let anybody know that this early.

Re:less than 50,000 yen

[bluk]

I wouldn't bet against Sony that they will play every trick in the book to beat MSFT's price. They could just be suggesting a high price so that MSFT slaps a $400 price tag and they sweep in for $350 or so. Sony has done all sorts of pricing and hype games before, and so far, they've won.

Price Match

[cainpitt]

Sony will match wahtever the Xbox comes out for. Both M$ and Sony have bottomless pits of money so they don't mind taking a hit on the harware. The problem for Sony may be when the PS3 come out at the same price as the Xbox and M$ slashes the price a week later just to stick it up Sony's ass. Either way, mass market consoles are not going to sell for more than $400. and even $400 is a lot for little johnny to hit his parents up for. It's going to be interesting.

what about what happened with the PSP

[HTL2001]

IIRC, the PSP costs significantly more than it should if you just convert currency, so maybe the PS3 will be more

on the other hand, they have made a lot of money on the sale of the PSP unit, so they can afford to loose money on the PS3. Considering Sony's game library size, it would probably be a good idea

Force parents to let their kids out?

[Redfrost]

Perhaps the high price tag will make parents realize that the $600-ish (CDN) would be better spent perhaps getting their kids sport equipment or even just getting them outside.

Parent 1: "Oh yeah? Well, my $600 bought my kid an extra 100Kg! Can you beat that?"
Parent 2: "Aww hell, I could only afford a $20 NES system that he doesn't even play. He's lost 60Kg just by playing outside! Its awful!"

Re:Force parents to let their kids out?

[chman]

What makes you think the kids will be buying these systems? There may well be a 360 under the Christmas tree this year, but these days it's more likely that Santa left it for Daddy and not Little Timmy.

Re:Heh.

[Darth_Burrito]

I agree with you. The dollar is weak right now so I would take any literal currency translations with a grain of salt. In January 2003, the exchange rate was 120 Yen to 1 Dollar. May 1st it was 105 Yen to the dollar. Using the 2003 conversion rate, the PS3 would be about $400.

How this works into the PS3's US based pricing strategy is anyone's guess, but I wouldn't just take a price in Yen, convert it, and assume that will be the price in dollars.

Re:Blame the Weak Dollar

[ivan256]

that paycheck you get is now worth perhaps half what it used to be a few years ago due to poor economic policy in the US

Actually, when buying japanese goods, the US dollar is worth only 10% less than it was two years ago. When buying from China, where most of the goods imported into the US come from, it's worth exactly the same amount it was two years ago.

The US economy is huge, so effects take a while to propegate. you will notice it first on imported goods, then local goods, then you will hopefully still be able to pay for food. I sure hope you arn't paycheck to paycheck right now with no ability to cut back.

This comment got modded up? Please go home Mr. Troll.

Ill pass for now

[FidelCatsro]

I think i will wait till 2007 to get my next gen consoles and probably get all 3 for around 500 with free games.

Its never a good idea to buy them when they are first out as within 6 months normaly the price will half.

If they really want to eat up everyone's lunch...

[stienman]

If Sony really wants to eat everyone for lunch, they'll use these extra few months after the XBox comes out to polish up an emulation layer so they can charge more for the machine because it'll do double duty. Play XBox and XBox 360 games as well as all the PS, PSII, and PSIII games on one box *and* play HD-DVDs. Throw in gamestation compatability and they could shut everyone else down.

Yes, I've read through the specs. It would be difficult - not impossible - but very, very difficult to emulate the XBox 360 on the PS3 with an acceptable quality.

But imagine the rewards of doing so...

</pipedream>

Note: It may be impossible to do in a practical time frame and amount of resources, but I still claim it's possible. I doubt the inverse is possible - the XBox 360 playing PS3 games.

-Adam

That expensive?

[SystemR]

Okay, start starving, cut food money and save it in the bank. Eventually you'll reach that amount by the time PS3 comes out.

On the plus side, you'll lose weight before you gain even more.

$500 in Tokyo...

[clambake]

So, what, a movie, nice dinner and a love hotel then? Yeah, I think people over here can afford it.

Over-hyped by maybe a little

[Rhys]

The specs I saw claiming 2 tflop (!?) per PS3 are just a tad over the top. They're essentially making the claim that they can deliver the equivilant of a $3 mil super computer I manage for what, $2.5k?

Three orders of magnitude less expensive in two years? I don't think so. Processors don't move that fast. I could maybe see 20 gflop but even that's pushing it.

Simple economics

[Rick the Red]

If you release it at $200, everyone will buy it for $200, including the folks who would have paid $500. So you relase it at $500, then when sales drop you figure you've tapped that market and you lower the pricepoint to get all those willing to pay $400. Then when sales dip you reach out to all those willing to pay $300. It's only after you've sucked those dudes dry that you lower the price to $200. Even if your cost to make it was $100 all along. Especially if your cost to make it was $100 all along.