*Edit* posted in wrong spot

The max a console should go is $500, and that's even pushing it. If all the consoles in the market were $500+, it wouldn't help anyone as most people would stick to the cheaper last-gen console. There's no way one company could break even by releasing a $600 console at launch, as the market that's willing to pay for it is very small.

I don't think so. I sure wouldn't spend that much on hardware. 300 seems more comfortable to me.

Pretty much this. The same applies to games as well. AAA games should honestly retail at 75$ by now.

Here's another interesting thing about the 8th gen consoles: none of them were initially sold at a significant loss.

That right there plays a large part in why the specs and jump in performance were far less overwhelming than those of the jump between the 6th and 7th gen.

This can be directly tied to the 2008 economic slump that simply made it too much of a risk to the company to essentially sell hardware under the assumption that things like peripherals, game license fees, paid for online subscription services, etc. would not just compensate for the loss in revenue caused by selling a product for less than the BoM, but automatically expand the initial consumer base through marketing (using specs to sell hardware before there are games that use said specs to justify the higher price).

SCE sold a lot more PS4s simply by focusing on the basics and making their hardware developer friendly to spur development even though the hardware itself was hardly anything near revolutionary.

Notice how the focus of the 8th gen initially was not on how superior the hardware was, or all the custom, code-named ICs colored with marketing buzzwords to excite consumers about the hardware rather than the games and services they provide access to.

I seem to recall paying $50 for NES cartridges back in the 80s, so definitely. 

N64 carts had to resort to doing the whole variable price thing based upon memory/size of game due to the cost of ROM ICs in the 90s, but that was an anomaly as the industry had moved to inexpensive optical discs by that point. 

There was a minor uproar over 7th gen games being priced at $60, but given the rising costs of development for "HD" games, it was far from unreasonable.

Of course rising development budgets mean the publisher is projecting higher unit sales unless being managed by financeers who have no idea what they're doing. 

Games with small markets or low projected demand/sales should have their development budgets adjusted accordingly, which is more or less what the entire mobile market and to a lesser extent, the indy market lives by. 

Another awesome post that did not go ignored.

Depends on specs but seeing that we are moving into a ERA of Cell-phone business practice.... NO!

I think the entry level consoles should be 200 to 300 dollars. Anything more then that needs to be considered an extra powered gaming rigg.

$299.99 is the historic magic price point that has helped most of the console sales leaders win the recent generations except the Wii started with a $249.99 price point.