PlayStation 3 to Sell For $399, Going Underground

Merrill Lynch Japan has conducted research that indicates that the PlayStation 3 will retail for $399. According to Gamespot's coverage of the paper, the unit will cost $494 to manufacture. Sony will thus be taking an almost $1 Billion loss in the first year of the PS3's lifespan. From the article: "It is normal for game companies to take a loss on hardware whenever a new console launches, since they typically focus on acquiring market share rather than generating a profit during the first year. During the second year and afterward, they can recover the losses with the savings that come from mass production and with licensing fees from publishers." Meanwhile, Press the Buttons is reporting on a Pro-G article in which SCEE Chief David Reeves states that "I feel proud that E3 went well from the presentations that they did...I feel very happy about that, but I told the troops: OK now we go underground. The PS3 goes underground until it comes out next year."

Comments

No surprise here

[JonN]

This isn't quite a surprise, as there has been a loss on consoles ever since the switch from cartridges to the inexpensive discs. The price for a disc at the high amounts they purchase them would probably be under 10 cents/disc. Now when you see that each game is going to be priced at ~$60 it is easy to see where the profit is.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that video games only take a nickle/disc to make, there are so many games out there that fail, even to the point of being fully developed but never shipped, that these companies need to balance the costs.

Ouch!

[DrMrLordX]

A $1 billion loss in the first year of production? That's going to hurt a lot, considering how much cash they had to dump to get Cell production ramped up this early. Their ability to mass-produce the processor was supposed to help them keep costs down and let them recoup the investment of building fabs in the first place. So much for the economy of scale.

Ahem!!!

[alvinrod]

From article:

It is normal for game companies to take a loss on hardware whenever a new console launches, since they typically focus on acquiring market share rather than generating a profit during the first year. During the second year and afterward, they can recover the losses with the savings that come from mass production and with licensing fees from publishers.

Nintendo will probably launch the Revolution somewhere between $200 and $300 and still manage to make a profit on every console they sell. A while back there was an excellent article on /. that explained how Nintendo's business model was different from Sony and Microsft, and that even though they came in third place against the Xbox and PS3, they were still the most profitable.

For Sony to release a console after Microsoft and for a higher price could cause problems for them like the article stated. Microsoft has deep enough pockets to launch the console at around $350 when it comes out and cut it down to $300 when the PS3 launches. They'd be taking some huge hits in the pocketbook, but it would probably get more people to buy Xbox 360's.

However, as illustrated with the PSP, some people will buy something no matter how much it costs just because they want it. Sony is really going to need to count on its fan base to help out a lot.

Re:PS3 for $399

[dpilot]

OK, let's play a simplified math game.

Let's pretend we have a game console, and it's planned competitive lifetime is 4 years. It introduces at $400, and a year later it's available for $300. But really, $400 for a 4 year lifetime means you're "writing down" $100/year. In that case, the early-adopter and the wait-for-the-price-to-drop users have gotten equal value out of the consoles. In fact, the early-adopter may have gotten better value, because his first game is being written down over 4 years instead of 3, so it costs less per year.

I know it's overly simplified, but there is one point that lasts... The early adopter does fork out the big bux, but he also gets that early usage out of the console, and perhaps more usage than the price waiter. The latter argument has holes too, in that the early adopter probably adopts the next generation early as well, so both get about the same amount of usage. Still, you buy it to use it, and if you buy early, you get to use early. The idea model, from a cost basis, would be to be an early adopter for every other generation, either skipping the in-between generations or getting them really cheap on eBay.

But if you're strictly on a cost basis, skip the game consoles entirely, and take up real-world activities that also improve your fitness.