Nate4Drake said:
ratchet426 said:
I'm wondering if Sony will go down the 2 SKU path by simply making the Blu ray drive optional. The rumors of a disc-less version of the next XBOX continue to swirl, and of course the Switch has proven (again) that a physical media drive may not be a deal breaker for consumers anyway.
So, how about a $399 PS5 SKU*without* a Bluray drive and a $449 PS5 SKU with an HD Bluray installed?
And here's where it could get interesting:
Manufacture the PS5 with a plug-in drive bay in the front so the base console hardware performance and features are identical. The only difference is that the $399 SKU will have a plastic bezel covering the drive bay but the $449 SKU will have the HD Bluray drive pre-installed. Sony could then sell the "pluggable" HD Bluray drive as a user-upgradable part for $99. The customer would just remove the bezel and slide the drive into the front of the unit to make it identical to the $449 SKU.
Pros: Sony can cram more RAM, etc. into the disc-less SKU and still bring it in at $399.
They can still offer an HD Bluray "deluxe" SKU for $449 without losing (as much) on each unit sold.
Consumers actually have a choice to buy the cheaper model now and then decide to add an HD Bluray drive later via simple plug-in upgrade.
Sony can make a higher profit on sales of the standalone Blu ray drive upgrade by selling it at $99 (vs. getting it for $50 if you buy the "deluxe" SKU day 1)
Cons: Two different SKU's to package and ship (note that manufacturing cost should be nearly identical because the only difference is one has the drive installed already)
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Just my two cents, and I think it could work.
Not everyone has internet, and many people don’t have enough bandwidth to download 50-80GB per game. The current generation of games is huge. Not everyone can afford to download a game and its patches, there are still internet providers who have bandwidth caps, so you can imagine the situation in less wealthy countries; so they would go with the SKU with disks, while the others with enough bandwidth have 2 options.
The second "issue" I can spot is this : if you go with a SKU that has no disc, then why would "GameStop" sell those consoles ? The whole market is around selling the games for profit. Anyway, we would have the other SKU with discs...so it shouldn't be a big deal, apart from further promoting the model with the discs.
I have never thought about it for PS5 though, but it could technically work I think.
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Having a discless version really makes no sense, though. How much would Sony be realistically paying for the drive? $15. $20, maybe. They'd be better off not dividing the market, which could lead to some confusion with the general consumer, as well as dividing the means of production, and eat that cost and come out with an all-in-one SKU for ~$399.
