BOLD PREDICTION: PS5 and PS5D to be $399 and $349 respectively

[DonFerrari]

VAMatt said:

DonFerrari said:

If MS makes less profit from their subs than Sony then they would have less money available from it to subsidize the console.

MS has massively more money available than Sony to do whatever they want.  But, that's not what I said, and it's not relevant in a case where both companies have sufficient access to cash to cover a reasonable subsidy.  What I said is that MS gets more of *their revenue* from subs than Sony does (which is a fact).  Therefore, it makes more business sense for MS to subsidize a console than it does for Sony.  MS is more likely than Sony to make that subsidy money up in the long run through subscriptions.

Also, I said that Sony is in a stronger position in the market right now.  More people are PS fans than XB fans.  And, all else being equal, that larger group of PS fans is more likely to choose PS over XB next gen.  Therefore, Sony has less to gain from a big subsidy.  If MS wants to pull people from the big group of PS fans to XB next gen, a big subsidy would help with that.  Sony could also pull XB users to PS with a subsidy.  But, there are a lot fewer potential people to pull over.  

MS always had more money than Sony, that never made MS burn that though. The budget of Xbox division is relevant not from whole MS.

MS may get percentually more revenue from subs than Sony, still Sony gets a lot of revenue from third party royalties and those rise with the number of consoles sold, so Sony have as much interest in selling for the lowest price possible (and considerable losses if necessary) as MS, if not more since MS can get their sub money from PC, phones and TVs in the near future.

Sure I agree that Sony have less reason due to being dominant, but they need to ensure they keep being dominant. If they go arrogant believing people will buy PS5 no matter what that may have severe consequences.

Slownenberg said:
No way it'll be $350 and $400. There have been news stories that Sony is freakin out because of Xbox pricing, which suggests Sony was probably planning on something like $450/$500 for digital version and $550/$600 for disc version. Apparently they are slashing the price now due to Xbox so I'm guessing it'll be $400/$450 for digital version and $500 for disc version. Sounds like Sony is gonna have to take a big loss to keep it competitively priced with Xbox. They were probably back to the hubris of the PS2, where they think people will just buy the next one at any price. Luckily for consumers Microsoft gave them a rude awakening.

Yes, I bet those were very trusthworthy sources, like the ones that PS5 were burning in the factories.

But please give your sources and explanation on how or why Sony would be freaking with a price point that even we in VGC have been predicting for over 6 months.

Series S was always predicted about 299 to be budget sensitive with Series X going from as little as 499 with loss, 550 near break even and 599 at most if they gone for premium approach.