2 SKUs for Next Gen Launch Consoles?

[Pemalite]

StriderKiwi said:

This.

And having worked at retail before, selling digital only titles is a pain. I hate to stereotype, but a lot of customers really are uninformed. And they always want to return EVERYTHING no matter the condition. Digital returns aren't an option. Plus there'd be less of a reason for customers to come to store to buy digital if they can just get it off the PS/Xbox store at home. I think the only reason they do that now is because the vast majority of retail shoppers purchase physical titles.

Disc-less consoles won't work yet but I wouldn't be surprised if Sony in particular tried that right out of the gate. They've been letting the PS4 success get to their heads, ignoring that Nintendo was basically a non-competitor most of the cycle and Xbox shat themselves right at the reveal. And the last two console cycles began with either Sony or Microsoft overestimating their appeal based on them "winning" the previous cycle. 

Some regions... Returning digital purchases is a consumer right protected under the law.

With that in mind... Just because a game is a digital purchase, doesn't mean that they can't buy a physical digital code, many PC games these days are just an empty DVD case when sold via physical sales channels.

Trumpstyle said:

Releasing a discless console is just a dumb idea, how much do a blu-ray drive cost sony/microsoft? 10$ is my guess. Same with releasing a only streaming box, it's a waste of time, so far this is just rumors so I would w8 if microsoft will really do something like this.

1 idea I have is also releasing a ps5+ or next xbox+, these consoles would have vapor chamber cooling and twice the hard drive storage space, but still exactly the same cpu/gpu performance. I like this idea as some people probably want a really quiet console or more storage.

A BD-XL is about $120 AUD.
So I would expect $50-$60 USD.

But that isn't the entire cost.

You have warranty costs (More parts, more failures, more costs and support), you have the power management, chipset and other pieces of logic, the engineering to shroud the system from vibrations and EM interference... I could go on.

It's not always "free". - Consequently, Microsoft and Sony have the advantage of shopping for a better deal and buying in bulk which helps.

I am all for a discless system, I won't own one personally though, but more choice is never a bad thing for the consumer.