Does PS5 have a good chance to win the launch season?

[EricHiggin]

Intrinsic said:

EricHiggin said:

I didn't see a $399 XBSX being very likely initially, I agree, but with Infinite being delayed, unless MS has something else up their sleeve, they would be wise to price their hardware as low as possible and eat whatever loss they have to early on. It wouldn't be a crazy move for MS to try and up sell people on XBSX. If it's the same price as PS5 at $499, it will barely change the market at best. However, if it's not only cheaper than PS5, but also only $100 more than XBSS, now the XBSX looks like one heck of a great deal. That would be mic drop worthy, and MS really needs one right about now, especially with Master Chief MIA.

That would be a lot of loss eating on MS part.

If the rumors are to be believed, the PS5 costs around $450 to make. And the XSX is rumored to cost around $480~. So let's say the PS5 in general costs around $420 - $450 (digital and non-digital version). Tack on another $60 to that (retailers cut and taxes), and you have a range of around $480 - $510. At $399 sony is losing around $80 on every digital SKU and at $499 they are losing $10 on every standard SKU.

But sony wants to sell more digital consoles because they stand to make the most money from that SKU in the long run.

Now looking at MS XSX, You are looking at $540 total (bom + $60). If they sell that SKU at $399, that's a $140 loss they would be taking on every console. That single SKU loss is more than both losses of the PS5DE and PS5 standard SKUs combined.

On the flip side, a $140 loss per console is not the end of the world, after all, sony was biting a $250+ loss on every PS3 sold back in 2006. But I doubt that's something Xboxdivision can pitch to MS. They are already taking losses in a lot of other areas tied to their gaming division. And doing that would likely just make sony react by selling the PS5 DE for $349.

Oh I know. It certainly seems quite unreasonable, but right now if you're MS, what do you do? Just sit back and hope for the best? The way I see it, if MS has any faith in XB, they will allow for a big subsidy of either console. I wouldn't partially sub both though. They could even let XBSX be much more rare than XB1X was and sub XBSS to $200 or $250, and try and fit between Nin and PS in terms of hardware specs for the main sales unit. If MS truly thinks XB exclusives and services will be widely accepted sooner than later, then they shouldn't have too much of a problem eating more than SNY to try and get back some mind/market share in this situation.

I just can't see MS going with the same hardware strategy they had planned without an Infinite launch now. If they don't have anything else close to that level left to reveal, then to me they have to bite the bullet on hardware or they're going to start seeing the hardware gap widen significantly in the early new year. Unless they think present XB1 owners will just stay put regardless and be content, while still paying for Game Pass for years to come.