| Ariakon said: I wouldn't be surprised at all if Scorpio is $399, in fact, that's what I'm expecting. MS didn't build this thing so that it wouldn't sell, they're trying to regain traction amongst the hardcore gamers that left them en masse at the beginning of the gen. Pro isn't going to cost $399 this fall, either, I would bet. Scorpio is built with similar parts as the Pro, even, with a custom polaris gpu and custom jaguar cpu, albeit more (and more expensive) Ram and a likely more expensive cooling system to get clock speeds higher. So it will cost more than Pro, but considering Pro is likely to drop price this year, a $399 price point will likely be attainable.
And yes, a console coming out in 2019 or 2020 with less concern about CPU compatability will be able to be quite a bit more powerful with a Zen + Vega combo (or maybe even a better GPU, considering the timeframe). I'd bet MS will have a similarly more impressive system of their own to release at that time as well. |
I think they want to make money on it too. As it won't sell gangbusters compared to XBox One S they can't price at a pricepoint where it will take years to make back the R&D and initial production costs of Scorpio. Might as well make a decent profit from the start from the hardcore gamers that will pay more for a premium model. I have my doubts too that Sony will lower the pro price. As long as it's less than Scorpio, they have no reason to do so, bundle it instead.
MS knows damn well that if they try to price match the pro, Sony can easily go lower and still make money. So it's probably better to sell it as a premium device.
A launch console will always be better bang for your buck. A mid gen update will sell less and needs to be profitable from the start. It will mostly sell to existing customers at first so no new xbl subscriptions or bunch of extra game sales to rely on. It might even lower game sales as those repeat customers have just 'lost' a bunch of money on a HW upgrade. (And are happy replaying their game library in 4K) Selling that HW upgrade at close to cost is not bringing in any profit.
But true, if Sony actually plans on lowering the pro price, maybe even bundle it with PSVR (if they still remember that piece of kit by then) MS might be forced to take a hit. As $150 to $200 price difference might be too much to overcome wiith premium marketing.
