I'm sure they are, but that price would fuck BOTH Nintendo and MS :p

the issue is that RAM...DAT RAM! If they can get a great deal on that then we have a real winner. Sony seems to have had a very clear idea of what they want with the system from the start. That beginning explanation at the event was really great in explaining it

what makes you so confident?  Did you breakdown the cost for each component?  I'm hoping you're right but have you looked specifically?

Well, it's not going to retail for $599 again, because they've learned their lesson. But it's not going to be cheap.

The PS4 is essentially a mid-high level computer at this stage. Building something like that would probably cost about $450. Therefore, I can't see it retailing for less than $400. I just hope they start off at a profit: loss leading was absolutely disastrous for them this gen, and I'm not sure that Sony in its current state can take a financial hit like that.

the long gen could benefit them now.  $400 will get you a leap now especially with RAM getting so much less expensive.

That $349 is an idiotic assumption and would mean Sony takes a $300 hit on the first batch of PS4s.

Without even seeing anything, my breakdown looks like (very crude, could be off by 30%):

1. SoC:  2 Jaguar cores and glue logic $60. gpu $60, enhanced blu-ray compander/processor $20, AMD $20 = $160

2. Memory 32 2Gbit gddr5 chips $90

3. pcb $20

4. blu-ray drive $20

5.ps $20

6. other mb components $30

7. controller, "Kinect" cameras $50

8. hd $25

8. assembly, case, "stuff" $10

That gets me a manufacturing cost around $425 (assuming good production yields which is a mighty assumption since all chips are "untested")

So my guess is $529 for a full PS4 and $449 for a lighter version. This would reduce initial production losses to around $100 per PS4

Well, they surely won't go with 599 USD again.

Anything below 450$ us reasonable for the PS4. Not sure how that would make it perform on the market, though.

I haven't made a single calculation. At all. I'm just that good ;)

Are you talking about manufacturing costs? $349 will be the retail price ;)

Considering Sony spent a ton of money on PS3 R&D AND took a massive loss per console, the PS4 is far cheaper for them even if they take a $200+ loss per console again.