Perhaps, but that is the same for MS with that stuff. Sony will eat the extra controller tech cost. We will see, I'm pretty confident they will undercut MS.

I'd guess the SSD. They're expensive for consumers already, being the new hot tech part to have. Then you have MS with a somewhat custom version, which you would think is more expensive yet. Then SNY with some highly customized super future SSD tech beyond what MS has, which may seem to be, well, super expensive. The rest of the tech shouldn't be all much different in terms of cost between the two, so even if XBSX is more costly in that case, the PS5 SSD would be a big cost that bridged that gap and exceeded it. There is also the question of the PSVR break out box and whether that tech will get baked into the PS5 console hardware or not. May not be much extra, yet another cost to take into account.

If you didn't take into account the engineering SNY does themselves, the mass manufactured discounts, new efficient PS5 manufacturing, etc, it could seem like PS5 may cost more to make. Do they also know the consoles are typically loss leading products?

More expensive? I
Probably not. Around the same? Absolutely.

The entirety of the ssd solution is new, not just the ssd itself. The controller. The cooling solution and... The most obvious yet least mentioned... The case. A small difference but a difference non the less.

Looks considerably more complex and layered than the simple but effective series X case.

BOM is within $20 of each other, without a doubt.

a) it requires extra casing

b) extra casing requires additional cooling solution

c) extra casing requires additional rfi certification

d) extra casing requires additional plugs/cables

e) extra casing requires additional supply chain management

Hint for you: Every time you see the word "additional", it means "adds costs to the product"

Your guess is largely wrong. There is one factor, the cost of the PS5 ssd. This basically is 12 generic, lower speed 512GBit nvrams. If you check the semiconductor spot market (where neither Sony nor MS buys its stuff because too expensive), that's probably around $24 (on good day) - $30. That is roughly the manufacturing cost. The other factor that drives costs is the develoment of  the entire I/O-system. The whole data chain in the SoC plus the front-end ssd controller (a rather "cheap" custom one as there is no dram memory involved, that sits in the PS5 SoC as sram).

How much does the second factor add to the cost of the ssd? Roll the dices, only Sony knows. If it worked the first try, add $100M, if it was a total mess, add $500M. So for 50M consoles, add $2-$10 to the ssd cost. Then add the usual bureaucracy costs and you end up around $40 for the ssd. From a bill of material costs viewpoint, this is significantly more expensive than a low-end $23 harddisk. From a shoppers viewpoint who pays $189.99 at the store for a similar pc ssd, it's dirt cheap.

The chip manufacturing cost isn't that simple to quantify.

Whilst you are most certainly on the money that the larger the chip, the more it costs to manufacture... But sometimes when you take a smaller chip and drive up the clockrates and voltages like Sony has done, you end up with chip "leakage" which is where electrons leak from one part of the chip to another, which does decrease chip yields and thus increase costs.

My point is, it's really difficult to assert whether the Playstation 5 chip is cheaper to manufacture when Sony has dialed in the clocks... But as TSMC matures it's manufacturing process and improves the electrical characteristics of that particular fabrication node, then Sony will certainly have a cost advantage... But right now, it's difficult to tell.

Sony is pushing it's 16GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus.
Microsoft is pushing it's 16GB GDDR6 on a 192-320bit memory bus, which is definitely going to require more PCB layers and traces.

Microsoft's approach will definitely cost more.

We have already seen the cooling solution the Xbox Series X is using.
They are both likely using vapor chamber cooling, the Xbox Series X's entire "design" is actually based around the cooler to keep everything consolidated and efficient.

I doubt there is much in the way of pricing differences between the two however.

They both use NAND. That is the only aspect they are the "same" in.
Neither uses eSRAM.

The Playstation 5's SSD is definitely more costly, it's using more memory chips and it's implemented them on a wider memory bus with a more intricate memory controller which will require more PCB traces, Sony did attempt to scale back the cost by reducing the amount of NAND capacity.

SSD is definitely more expensive for the Playstation 5.

Agreed.

Sony does need to recoup the hundreds of millions spent on that plant, the initial investment will take awhile to break even.

Foxconn has proven to be very cost effective for manufacturers.

I think they are both closer than you might think.

It is injeted plastic, I don't think it will cost as much as you think it will. And Not sure why you think it is extra casing just because it have a lot of curves and possibly a little more volume than Series X. We have plenty electronics with bigger size and oddier style still it isn't the plastic that make the cost grow.

I have no clue what you wrote here.

The question was "Why don't they use an external ps?" and I answered that question.

You are right, the PS5 is not more expensive to make. But its not much cheaper either. I am guessing here is like a $30-$40 difference between the cost of the PS5 vs that of the XSX.

APU, RAMand the SSD (yes the SSD) are all going to be more expensive on the XSX than the PS5. As for the cooling solution, the PS5 could be more expensive, but when looking at that kinda hardware, more expensive would be like saying $15 vs $18.

Actually, maybe not the SSD... 

Probably all the fuss that was made over the SSD and controller.