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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Is the market ready for a $500 console yet?

 

What should the PS5 & Xbox 4 cost at launch?

$500 (high specs) 45 60.81%
 
$450 (moderate specs) 8 10.81%
 
$400 (low specs) 21 28.38%
 
Total:74
RaptorChrist on 18 April 2019
ptofhearts said:
RaptorChrist said:

The part you are having problems with is the usage of the word "high-spec". The poll used "low-specs", "medium-specs", and "high-specs" as a way of categorizing the different price points.

More powerful hardware costs more money. Or are you under the impression that $499 is a price beyond the scope of what powerful hardware can cost (i.e., there is no hardware powerful enough to cost $499)?

What I'm trying to say is can't Sony reach a balance between having a powerful enough console for today's standards at a U$399 price tag? Of course more powerful hardware costs more money, but seven years ago a high end console that was the PS4 cost U$399 for consumers, can't a high end console today cost the same? Is it really that advantageous to go as far as to create hardware that will cost U$499?

Until reading through this thread, I had no idea that people would look at $499 as such a high price point. For me, as a consumer, I want to see Sony release the PS5 with super powerful hardware that costs more than what the average consumer would be willing to pay.

Money is relative to the person spending it, and for some people, $499 is steep. Me ten years ago would have had concerns over the price, back during a time when the price of something played a much bigger role in my ability to buy it. Today, however, at the end of the month, once all the bills are paid, my wife and I usually have upwards of $1000 leftover, maybe more.

But those situations are always changing, and maybe ten years from now I'll be broke again, so it all depends on one's situation.



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Mandalore76 on 18 April 2019
DonFerrari said:
Mandalore76 said:

Are you seriously using 2 stumbled launches that cost their platform owners nearly half the customers they had built up from the previous generation as a sign that the mass market consumer wants to pay $500 or more for a video game console?  The PS3 had sales at $599, sure.  But, was it "good sales" if there were 70 million less PlayStation owners from the previous gen?  The Xbox One had sales at $499, sure.  But, were they "good sales", if Microsoft may have lost 50% of it's own customer base from the previous gen?  I would say no based on just the fact that Microsoft does not even announce sold numbers for the Xbox One or Xbox One X.  When you aren't announcing milestones, you aren't exactly happy with your sales, are you? 

You are certainly reading it wrong, or with some different intent.

The point is that even at those high price point they sold well at launch, that is all there is. I even said that it will do much better at 399.

PS4 will end up selling 30M less than PS2 so it must have been a failure as well right? PS3 and X1 wouldn't ever sell near close to their predecessors because X360 was a worth contender for PS3 so even if PS3 didn't made major mistakes it would probably still sit 100-120M total, while PS4 was a much better proposition than X1 (besides MS only being relevant in US and UK) so it also wouldn't ever cross 70M.

Where did you get that from?  The PS4 has outsold its predecessor, won back lost marketshare, and earned a profit for Sony.  3 major things the PS3 didn't.  So no, I don't equate them as the same.  I also disagree that an Xbox One minus the disastrous launch couldn't have sold 70 million consoles.  The Xbox 360 sold 10 million consoles the year before the Xbox One launched.  The Xbox One never sold more than 8.6 million in a year during it's lifetime.  Not even before the PS4 hit it's stride with exclusives.  That's not because it's only relevant in US and UK, since the 360 was saddled with that handicap as well.



Mandalore76 on 18 April 2019
RaptorChrist said:
ptofhearts said:

What I'm trying to say is can't Sony reach a balance between having a powerful enough console for today's standards at a U$399 price tag? Of course more powerful hardware costs more money, but seven years ago a high end console that was the PS4 cost U$399 for consumers, can't a high end console today cost the same? Is it really that advantageous to go as far as to create hardware that will cost U$499?

Until reading through this thread, I had no idea that people would look at $499 as such a high price point. For me, as a consumer, I want to see Sony release the PS5 with super powerful hardware that costs more than what the average consumer would be willing to pay.

Money is relative to the person spending it, and for some people, $499 is steep. Me ten years ago would have had concerns over the price, back during a time when the price of something played a much bigger role in my ability to buy it. Today, however, at the end of the month, once all the bills are paid, my wife and I usually have upwards of $1000 leftover, maybe more.

But those situations are always changing, and maybe ten years from now I'll be broke again, so it all depends on one's situation.

You're not the average person though.  Just recently it was estimated that 4 out 5 US workers live paycheck to paycheck.  So yeah, to the average consumer, in the US anyway, the difference between spending $400 or $500 on a video game system (with no games or extra controller) is indeed a big deal.

The government shutdown spotlights a bigger issue: 78% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/shutdown-highlights-that-4-in-5-us-workers-live-paycheck-to-paycheck.html



ptofhearts on 18 April 2019
RaptorChrist said:
ptofhearts said:

What I'm trying to say is can't Sony reach a balance between having a powerful enough console for today's standards at a U$399 price tag? Of course more powerful hardware costs more money, but seven years ago a high end console that was the PS4 cost U$399 for consumers, can't a high end console today cost the same? Is it really that advantageous to go as far as to create hardware that will cost U$499?

Until reading through this thread, I had no idea that people would look at $499 as such a high price point. For me, as a consumer, I want to see Sony release the PS5 with super powerful hardware that costs more than what the average consumer would be willing to pay.

Money is relative to the person spending it, and for some people, $499 is steep. Me ten years ago would have had concerns over the price, back during a time when the price of something played a much bigger role in my ability to buy it. Today, however, at the end of the month, once all the bills are paid, my wife and I usually have upwards of $1000 leftover, maybe more.

But those situations are always changing, and maybe ten years from now I'll be broke again, so it all depends on one's situation.

To put it in perspective: I am from Brazil and here, when the PS4 was released, it cost us around U$1000 to buy one officially, which is very, very steep, specially considering our minimal monthly wage at the the time would be around U$229. I bought mine only on February of last year, and I was fortunate enough to be able to afford one at it's U$399 price tag (since the price had been cut by then), which is still steep, as most people here still can't afford it.

A console at U$499 will have a surreal price here in Brazil, and I believe Sony would lose a lot of ground. Besides, there are other things to consider, like is it going to be advantageous for developers to invest more money to develop a high end game to sell it on a console that could potentially have a much smaller userbase, specially at launch?



Mandalore76 on 18 April 2019
DonFerrari said:
JRPGfan said:
Personally I feel 500$ is a little to high..... consoles start to get attractive at the 300$ price point imo.

I get that the rumored specs of the PS5 more than justify a 500$ price tag to go along with it, so even if you paid 500$ for it, you wouldnt feel cheated.
PS5 is looking to be a really powerfull system for its price. Still I guess Im just not as focused about graphics as most are, I feel like 1080p is still fine tbh.

Personally I would have prefered they did a small "jump" going with PS5 and then made a cheaper system instead.
Keeping that 400$ price point.

However if we're getting 8c/16 zen2, 16GB GDDR6, Navi GPU at 12TF+, SSD HDD,... raytraceing (for sound & graphics) ect
I doubt it ll be 400$..... 500$ is more likely.

Why bother doing small jumps?

For someone minded like you would be better that they at the time PS5 launch cut PS4 basic to 149 and PS4 Pro to 249, so for the next couple years due to the crossgen (and also BC) you have very cheap HW. And then when you are going to upgrade to PS5 the 499 became 299-349.

I don't think you realize the irony in how much your statement mirrors 2 major marketing PR flops by Sony and Microsoft from recent memory:

Sony wants you to earn that PlayStation 3!

"During a recent interview with Japanese economic website Toyo Keizai, ever-charming Ken Kutaragi had this to say about Sony's goal for the PS3: "for consumers to think to themselves 'I will work more hours to buy one'. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else." In other words: Get a job!"

https://www.engadget.com/2005/07/06/sony-wants-you-to-earn-that-playstation-3/

Microsoft: No Internet? We have a product called the Xbox 360

"We have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity," says Microsoft's Don Mattick, "it's called Xbox 360."

https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-no-internet-we-have-a-product-called-the-xbox-360/



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haxxiy on 18 April 2019
Mandalore76 said:
RaptorChrist said:

Until reading through this thread, I had no idea that people would look at $499 as such a high price point. For me, as a consumer, I want to see Sony release the PS5 with super powerful hardware that costs more than what the average consumer would be willing to pay.

Money is relative to the person spending it, and for some people, $499 is steep. Me ten years ago would have had concerns over the price, back during a time when the price of something played a much bigger role in my ability to buy it. Today, however, at the end of the month, once all the bills are paid, my wife and I usually have upwards of $1000 leftover, maybe more.

But those situations are always changing, and maybe ten years from now I'll be broke again, so it all depends on one's situation.

You're not the average person though.  Just recently it was estimated that 4 out 5 US workers live paycheck to paycheck.  So yeah, to the average consumer, in the US anyway, the difference between spending $400 or $500 on a video game system (with no games or extra controller) is indeed a big deal.

The government shutdown spotlights a bigger issue: 78% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/shutdown-highlights-that-4-in-5-us-workers-live-paycheck-to-paycheck.html

To be fair, though, in today's consumerist society that includes an endless variation of clothing, entertainment and travel expenses etc. So that would be just shifting a small sum of money from one superfluous expense to another, not like it would take away from the kids' lunch or anything. Not for the average American household, at least. Of course, it doesn't mean there aren't people out there burying themselves in debt in the name of social acceptance etc.



 

 

 

 

 

Conina on 18 April 2019
Mandalore76 said:
JamesGarret said:
I would hope so, this isnt 2006 anymore, we live in an age where people pay more than $1.000 for phones and other devices so some of that "disposition" should rub off a little on the console market, and considering its something thatll last you for ~6/7 years and help insure a more significant leap over the previous generation, I say bring it.

Why are people bring up the cost of phones as if it is remotely relatable?  Your monthly phone plan pays for most of the cost of the device.

Mine doesn't. Most people who can calculate the total costs of a phone contract will buy the phone separately.



SvennoJ on 18 April 2019

I bought the ps3 for CAD 650. No doubt the ps5 will be at least CAD 600. It was a fluke that the ps4 was only CAD 400 when the Canadian dollar was on par or even higher than the US dollar. No chance of that now.



dane007 on 18 April 2019

If the specs are true than the 500 price tag is cheap as chips. Those specs are already higher than my custom built pc and should be able to do 4k native easily at higher settings. You cant get a pc like that for that orice 😂. Sadly a 500usd wpuld mean it will be 700 nzd 😂. To put into persoective my oc when u built it 5 years ago roughly cost me 3.6k nzd 😂



RaptorChrist on 18 April 2019
ptofhearts said:
RaptorChrist said:

Until reading through this thread, I had no idea that people would look at $499 as such a high price point. For me, as a consumer, I want to see Sony release the PS5 with super powerful hardware that costs more than what the average consumer would be willing to pay.

Money is relative to the person spending it, and for some people, $499 is steep. Me ten years ago would have had concerns over the price, back during a time when the price of something played a much bigger role in my ability to buy it. Today, however, at the end of the month, once all the bills are paid, my wife and I usually have upwards of $1000 leftover, maybe more.

But those situations are always changing, and maybe ten years from now I'll be broke again, so it all depends on one's situation.

To put it in perspective: I am from Brazil and here, when the PS4 was released, it cost us around U$1000 to buy one officially, which is very, very steep, specially considering our minimal monthly wage at the the time would be around U$229. I bought mine only on February of last year, and I was fortunate enough to be able to afford one at it's U$399 price tag (since the price had been cut by then), which is still steep, as most people here still can't afford it.

A console at U$499 will have a surreal price here in Brazil, and I believe Sony would lose a lot of ground. Besides, there are other things to consider, like is it going to be advantageous for developers to invest more money to develop a high end game to sell it on a console that could potentially have a much smaller userbase, specially at launch?

Yikes. I guess ideally, in my opinion, a hardware generation would start out on the more high-tech side of the spectrum and only get cheaper with time, as once Sony releases the PS5, the specs are locked in, and all future development on that platform must be playable at those standards.

The issue with that is that in general, whichever console tends to sell the best during it's first year has a good chance of snowballing ahead for the rest of the generation. As a result, it would be in Sony's best interests to focus on having the system launch at an affordable price for everyone, despite personally wishing they would cater a bit more towards the tech enthusiasts.

Edit: Out of curiosity, do you sort of prefer Sony waiting to release the PS5 for as long as possible so as to prolong the value of the current generation? I'm not sure what my opinion is on the topic of short or long generations. I like the things I buy having value for a long time, but I also like getting new things, so that's a tough call.

Last edited by RaptorChrist - on 18 April 2019