It all depends what feature it will have.
I don't mind spending 500-600$ on a console if I believe I get my money's worth.
I got my 80gb PS3 at 499$ and I don't feel like I was robbed...

The only thing I haven't liked this gen so far is how Sony missed the achievement train and as a result half of my games don't have trophy support...

Ill sigh and buy one used and all my games used except for Kojima games

Exactly. It wasnt that paying 600 bucks wasnt worth the money it was just that its a lot of money regardless of value.

If sony decided to push 3D gaming and its obvious costs next gen theyd be fools.

I think sony just assumed the following.

DVD for PS2 would be BD for PS3: The flaw? BD was in a format war that dragged on and it wasnt as much of an obvious upgrade as DVD over VHS. The Good? BD may hit its stride in 2010 thus bringing great value and penetration for future PS3's with its new price point and no HD DVD.

Playstation 2 users just wanted a PS3: The flaw? Gamers are gamers. They had access to the 360 a year early, and PS2 gamers were enticed byt the PS2's modest pricing early in its life cycle and capitalized on the lack of success of the gamecube, dreamcast and xbox was late to the party. The good? Not really one to be honest, theres a alot of differentiation and the PS3 isnt head and shoulders above its competitors liek the PS2 was, its an uphill struggle.

Hopefully next gen sony learns from its mistakes, and the success of the Wii and 360 push sony to really make good consumer decisions.

If anything the PS3 has been good for gamers all over because it was humbling for sony and will drive intense competition next gen across the industry because MSFT made leaps and bounds, nintendo made what will probably go down in history as teh most successfully financial and commercial console and Sony will want to get back on top. All three companies will be closer to parralell ground without a single front runner next gen.

Nintendo will have an obvious headstart in mindshare and marketshare and by the end of th egen Sony and MSFT will probably be neck and neck. Great for the industry overall imo.

Sony wont f*** up. Heres hoping.

Thanks for clearing things up. Didn't know standard DVD's back then were 200-300 dollars....

I don't give a damn how much it cost to make the machine, it's their fault it costs that much to make in the first place.

If Sony made the PS4 $1200 would you buy it?

Probably not...

If Sony said it costs them $2000 to make the system, now would you buy it? Why is Sony making money on a system important to your purchase?

You act like Sony is a charitable organization, the reason they didn't price it higher is because they obviously knew their asking price of $600 was already ridiculous for a console.

Wow are people that stupid. Price does not matter. What matters is what it is.

If they released the PS3 at 200$, they would of won format war and be hitting around 100million units by now, or can't produce enough. Of course more people buy it when it's at a lower cost.

360 cost 700$ to produce, they sold for a loss, so did PS3. So did PS2, gamecube, n64, PS1, infact most to all consoles except WII.

They could of released PS3 at 900$, and people would of bought it. They didn't because Sony knows at a lower pricepoint, more will buy it. However they don't want to lose too much, normally 30% loss means nothing, they'll make it up in game sales and lower production costs.

The PS3 unlike earlier generations was much more expensive. PS2 launched around 300$, however it cost 500$ to produce a unit at the time. PS1 had 500$ production cost to. Sony decided this time to not only bring 1 or 2 new technologies to the forefront but many. PS2 had D-RAM and DVD, PS1 had CDs(not first console, but first to actually bring them in to mass public appeal) however PS3 is bringing so many new, expensive as hell stuff. The CELL of course, Blu-ray, XDR memory, at the time they put the actual CPU and GPU of the PS2 in the PS3 so it could do full PS2 BC etc etc.

They could release the next console for 1200$, but it better be worth it. If it is, it'll sell. Early buyers do look at things like how much it costs to make what it has etc. PS3 was the cheapest BD player at 600$ when it launched etc.

Next generation we know PS4 will not be launched at 600$. We hit the point where graphics are beginning to hit realism standards that a major upgrade is not needed. PS4 will be using CELL technology, and BD, which is stated by Sony.

Advantages of BD being 4.5X the speed of DVDs, and able to hold up to 400 gigs of data. PS4 will likely ship with a 12x BD drive, unlike the 2x BD drive in PS3(equal to a 9x DVD drive, which is why slow read times compared to the 12x DVD drive in 360). PS4 will ship with a better CELL, possibly the CELL X2 which consists of 14 SPEs(clocked higher) and 2 main cores(Clocked higher)(CELL is 7 SPEs clocked at 700 Mhz each, and a 1.4 Ghz PPC core). GPU could be something like a upgraded RSX. It'll ship with either double or 4x the memory. 512 XDR or 1024 XDR, and 512 to 1024 GDDR5(GDDR3 is what PS3 uses now). With that set up, loading times would be almost null, and games would far exceed crysis at highest detail.

In 2015, that'll all probably cost around 700$ in production, and launch for around 400-500$. Sony seems to want to push blu-ray and CELL, they are heavy into both technologies and keep stating they want to push them even further in the future. Though all speculation, it is most likely.