Is the market ready for a $500 console yet?

[JRPGfan]

RaptorChrist said:

If "less than $500" actually ends up being $499, then my respect for humanity has been lost.

But in all seriousness, the more expensive the better the hardware, and I want it to be powerful at launch. Without having given it much thought, I was expecting something right about the $500 price mark, and maybe a more expensive $600 SKU as well.

Edit: Is $500 really where consumers tend to fall off the wagon. I mean, the PS3 was $600 and that was more than a decade ago. By those standards, it would probably be closer to $700 today.

PS3 was too expensive imo...... I think 500$ today is the upper limit of what you can do, if you dont want to p*ss off your target audience.
Sure die hards will still get it even if its 700$.... I dont think its smart to price it higher than 499$ though.

Like if Sony comes out with a 599$ price tag, they have lost their marbles.
People are over estimateing how much the avg consumer, cares for top of the line specs & graphics imo.