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

[DonFerrari]

Intrinsic said:

EricHiggin said:

I'd hafta assume Nvidia 3000 Series GPU's had something to do with the delay, even though Nvidia would have a general idea of what the consoles would cost for consumers. They wouldn't know exactly how much MS and SNY would subsidize them though. 

RDNA 2 Big Navi isn't out yet for AMD and that's what's in the consoles. The sooner Nvidia knew the console pricing, the sooner they would have a better idea of what Big Navi PC cards would cost. AMD wouldn't want that. 

Considering the XBSS 'leak' didn't happen until after the recent Nvidia 3000 announcement happened, which apparently MS planned for the week after the leak, it's not surprising. MS and SNY may have had to wait until a later date, or after Nvidia announced, one or the other. Since SNY was always going to wait for MS, now SNY can go. 

DonFerrari said:

I wouldn`t say it is impossible that AMD had in contract or asked for a favor that the console platforms didn`t reveal the price until they reveal the price of their GPUs (and that they were waiting on NVidia). If you are going to launch a little later there is no reason to reveal the price before.

Those are interesting takes... however, I feel they are unrelated. The only similarity these consoles share with "big navi" is actually that they are all based on RDNA2. It's likely that the smallest "big Navi" GPU would be bigger than or at least on par with the 52CU GPU found in the XSX but clocked higher.

I think this hole pricing delay from both sony and MS was due to each party just not wanting to be undercut. They are both in a position where they have a hard upper limit of $499. No one is going above that price point. Now the question would always be about how low you can go. 

eg... If sony went first and announced the PS5 at $399 and the PS5D at $299 for instance, there is not a chance in hell that MSsells the XSX for $499 and the XSS for $299. They would price match sony on the PS5 with their XSXand drop the XSS below $299, to either$249 0r $269 or even $199 flat. If MSwent first and priced the XSSat $399, then sony could either match that with their PS5D o kill it off or just price their PS5D at $449 and still probably kill it off.

They have both been in a war of attrition all of this year. And their weapon has been price.

Keep in mind, both Sony and MS would have looked at multiple pricing scenarios, they would have even had marketing already prepared for all those scenarios. All they needed was to see who blinks (or fucks up) first.

Now, sony has time to gage the market/media/fans/whatever and adjust what price they come in at accordingly. Now my can come in at $3349 PS5D and $449 PS5 and just be the all-round better value option compared to either the XSS or XSX. Or they can come in at $399 PS5D and $449 PS5 and be a better option compared to the XSX and a debatable (as opposed to clear cut)notion over the XSS.

I think this is what this whole pricing thing has been about. At this juncture, whatever is associated with any upcoming next-gen platforms would be associated with them for the rest of the generation. If sony comes in at $449 for the PS5, even if six months later the XSX drops to $449, i would always be said that the PS5is "cheaper" and a better value.

Sure both were playing chicken, but from what was discovered from MS leak they were planning to reveal S and price this week (and seemling sony as well, but they decided to give themselves extra days to as you said gauge the market and fine tune their price) and sure I agree that they had several price point and marketing bullets prepared to use depending on what the competitor that gone first revealed. But truly is a lot of coincidence that both were gearing to reveal on the same week and short after NVidia revealed their new GPU family.