With the US China tariffs, now may be a useful time to try this regardless. I can't remember if I read PS is contemplating, or is in talks to move American PS5 production to another country where it won't have to deal with tariffs, but if PS5 was going to be $499, and now has to be considerably more, they could very well make that model the $599 version. While they may have to add some value on top of the tariffs to get it to $600, that's probably better than leaving it as is and charging say $549-$579.
Then they could also sell a stripped down version for $399, which would basically be another upgrade over the PS4 Pro, but with a much stronger CPU, along with a stronger GPU, equivalent to XB1X's, if not better. This in a way would make sense, because then the PS line up would better match the XB line up in terms of performance, even if there is a lower end, XB1X ish level mid tier Scarlett model coming.
PS has proven they can far outsell XB at higher pricing, even though PS4 is more capable than XB1S, so a base PS5 should easily be able to compete with similar pricing to XB1X, while having similar specs. Even if the base PS5 was slightly more capable, but $50 more, assuming XB1X/low end Scarlett was $349 by then, it shouldn't be much of a problem for PS.
This also should allow for PS5 'Pro', or whatever they call it, to be 'most powerful console ever created', considering it's unlikely that the typical/high end Scarlett will be more than $499, even if MS has to downgrade it somewhat to get it there.
While I'd guess less successful, maybe instead of $399, the stripped down version is $499 and isn't all that much different than the $599 version, like storage level differences as per usual, which could be used to try and upsell consumers, considering $499 is basically expected anyway. Was PS3 pricing just 14 years too early?
There's plenty of possibilities if they decide to go with two models. I think some could definitely work, but the marketing and messaging will be key to success if attempted.
