| makingmusic476 said: Honestly, this thing shouldn't cost all that much to make. The iPhone 4, for example, costs under $200, but it sells for $499 by itself, and $199 with a phone contract. The question is whether they'll price the device like smartphones and .mp3 players, with a hugh mark-up on each one sold, or whether they'll stick with how they've launched consoles in the past, selling it it at or below cost. After all, the ps3 was far more functional than competing Blu-ray players at the time, yet it sold for far less when it launched ($599 vs $1000 or more). |
But the iPhone has the benefit of subscription fee kickbacks to generate revenue. That's on top of their 30% cut from app sales on the AppStore.
The PSP2 wouldn't get such subsidies from its 3G carrier service unless there is some sort of data subscription contract involved, which would be a first for a simple game playing device.
But I don't think SCE will have to sell the PSP2 at a loss. The iPhone 4 only costs about $187 to manufacture. There is no single component in the PSP2 that should make them excessively expensive to manufacture. An OLED touchscreen display is in a $199 portable media player, so even that doesn't qualify.
And since SCE is presumably counting on media sales to generate revenue (unlike just about any media player not tethered to a first rate content/media portal like iOS devices), they shouldn't have to count on a huge mark up per unit for what is still basically just a game and media player.
