PS5/Series X
Sony/Microsoft/Paul Tassi
It is very weird that we are about to get through all of “E3 season” without knowing one key piece of information about the next generation of consoles, PS5 and Xbox Series X, when we literally know everything else about them at this point: the price.
But I do not expect that to last much longer. This seems like something that will have to be addressed in the next month or so, despite Sony and Microsoft playing chicken with one another, daring the other party to go first.
There have been many, many predictions about how this is going to go:
PS5 will try to repeat the success of PS4’s launch at $400, hopefully undercutting the Series X even if it means losing money.
Or Xbox Series X will instead be $400, undercutting PS5 this time, and Microsoft is willing to take the hit to avoid what happened last generation.
Xbox Series X
MS
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Or both consoles will be stupidly expensive, anywhere from $600-800, because they are essentially mini-gaming PCs with specs that should in theory make them cost even more than that.
At this point, I don’t believe any of those.
Here’s what is likely to be my final prediction (don’t hold me to that) about the price of PS5 and Xbox Series X:
$500
For both.
Two things are clear to me at this point. One is that there is absolutely no way that Sony prices at $400 this time, based on comments Sony Interactive CEO Jim Ryan has made about “value” while not necessarily being the “cheapest.” That is not a statement that says $400 in anyway, and $450 is too awkward a price point except maybe the disc-free one. But in that case, my prediction is more than likely that the disc-drive PS5 costs $550 and the digital one costs $500.
On the Xbox Series X side, despite my skepticism about the existence of the Xbox Lockhart, the lower-spec secondary console Microsoft is rumored to be making, industry insiders do assure me it’s a real thing. So if that’s true, that also absolutely rules out an extremely low price for the Series X, as it’s not going to be $400, already below the PS5, and have the Lockhart be priced at then, what, exactly? $300? No way.
PS5
Sony
Nor do I believe that Sony and Microsoft will release $600-800 consoles in the middle of a borderline economic depression in the wake of a global pandemic. Sony will want to avoid $600 due to how badly the PS3 did at that price. Microsoft will want to avoid going that high for fear of repeating the Xbox One launch if Sony does price at $500.
So, the final breakdown I can see is:
Disc-drive PS5: $550
Digital PS5: $500
Xbox Series X: $500
Xbox Lockhart: $400 (though how much of a downgrade this console would be remains unclear)
I think $600 is a stove-hot price point no one wants to touch. And I don’t think with the power and parts that are going into the PS5 and Series X, they can reasonably price at $400 without a massive loss, and if any console can hit that, it has to be the downgraded Lockhart.
So, there we are. This is probably going to be my last guess for a while, as I think we’ll hear the price for both of these soon enough.
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