Is the market ready for a $500 console yet?

[DonFerrari]

danasider said:

DonFerrari said:

For about 2 years Wii were sold much higher than MSRP.

And also you haven't seem the good posts regarding inflation and console price.. PS1 at 299 in 1994 is more expensive than PS5 at 499 in 2020.

I don't know how much above MSRP it was selling for, but I doubt Wii was selling higher than $400.

And yeah, I'm aware of inflation. When I use the numbers to show the history of launch prices, I am aware that 299 in 1994 means something completely different than the same price today. However, just like box office, people still seem to compare them as if they're the same (Gone with the Wind sold many times more tickets than Avatar but Avatar is number 1). I believe these launch prices stay with the consumer despite inflation. They've stayed with me since being a kid and buying consoles, but that's just my experience.

Also, $299 may be well above what we're paying for in terms of value at its time, but things like manufacturing costs, adoption rate of consoles, etc. go into why we were willing to spend more.

I personally would pay $500 for something with a little more beef under the hood, but I think pricing determines which console maker sells more so I don't think it'd be in Sony's best interest.

People may make bad comparisons and ignore inflation in some situations.

But when purchasing people don't go straight for comparison of previous system plus inflation, they compare to other items they are buying at that period.

That is why NES @100, SNES @ 200, PS1 @299, PS4 @ 399 and PS5 @499 could be considered reasonable prices at the time they launched even if PS4 is 4 time more expensive than NES.