but but but cellphones do much more things and I can have a discount by paying an overpriced plan.

That is a discussion you will never see the end of in VGC.

People normalize 1k USD every 2 years for a phone that cost 300 USD to make but complain a 600 USD PS3 that cost 800 USD to make.

I'm expecting $449-$499. I usually wait a few months to a year before I hop on a new gen, anyway, just so things are ironed out on the new HW. So, there may be a price cut by then. Even if not, I'll still pick one up, since i'm going to sell my Pro to go towards it. And considering it's going to be a beast, it'll be well worth it. 

The $400 price point is the sweet spot for phones right now and is seeing the largest growth, even as other price points are in decline/stagnant.


But yeah, higher price, better hardware... The hardware will get cheaper over time anyway, if you can't afford a console on release... Well. That's life.

PC is a bit different.

On a console... The CPU and GPU will be a single chip, or at-least a single package.
There won't be dedicated DRAM for the GPU or System memory, power delivery will handle the entire system... Rather than separate for the GPU/System.

And of course, the console manufacturers can buy in bulk... AMD won't be trying to garner a 61% profit on all chips sold for example.

That reduces costs for consoles significantly.
Although there may be some disruption in the NAND and DRAM markets which might make things difficult in the future, but we aren't privy to those supply contracts, so it might be a fixed costs regardless.

Either way.... $399 wasn't going to happen once we knew what the systems were running with... Over a year for the devices to start dropping, so start saving.

Going by the current trend of the gaming industry, the console will be no more expensive than $400, but will contain lootboxes to win performance tokens for 720p, 1080p and 4k. There will also be a 0.001% chance to get a free month of Plus.

And people will praise it because the console is still cheap and the lootboxes are totally optional.

You know... I wouldn't be surprised if that actually happened.

$499.99-$599.99 is inevitable for the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett given their specs and industry trends.

I do think the consoles will probably launch with just one SKU. PS3 didn't do well at all for years, even if there was a model that was $499.99 at launch instead of $599.99.

People will buy the consoles as long as they have enough features and games.

I get the feeling it's will be easier to accept a high price if both of them are at a similar price-point

I mean, if they’re $500-$550, I’m not even gonna bother unless they have some compelling exclusives.

The next Halo game is cross-gen, so that’s one big reason for me to not even bother with Scarlett right now. Given how long it took for PS4’s exclusive software to really get going, I feel content simply waiting a few years, until there’s more software available and the price is lower.

I guess 500$ as a launch price is a safe bet for both consoles. Can't see it being lower than that considering the known specs. Doesn't really matter for me personally as I doubt I will be getting both consoles at launch if any at all.

I do believe both will be similar priced and you are right when saying that would diminish the perception of high cost if they end up being both 500.