http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/1zpcu1/e3-2013-e3-2013--pachter-interview--stream-

I watched the interview yesterday and can't be bothered going through it again for the exact numbers. But he says their [virtual?] tear down puts manufacturing at about $325, add other costs to get the units to stores, and the marketing expenses I gues that might put the cost of PS4 up by about $25. Pachter thinks about $375 wholesale, with the retailer getting a $24 margin.

I know Pachter's predictions are often terrible, but I think his technical contacts making these estimates must be reasonably good at what they do. So I'm picking that this is a reasonable estimate. At worst his margin for errorprobably puts PS4 at break even for Sony. Which is still a really good starting point.

I haven't seen any teardown estimates for Xbone, but I'm picking Xbone must be making a small profit too, unless Kinect is a helluva expensive piece of kit.

Anyway, this bodes very well for Sony, and it means Sony will be in a position to drop the price any time after the first year on market and remain profitable per unit. Either to stay within a certain price diferential with Wii U, or to remain cheaper than Xbone, or to just drop the price on a pre-determined pricing schedule.

Sony is a greedy, evil corporation, we must not lose sight of that fact. But they are doing a damned good job of pretending to be our friend.

Sorry I am still an embed noob.