Reports suggest that the upcoming PS5 can be Sony’s most expensive PlayStation machine to date costing up to $470 for the basic model.
According to a report by Bloomberg, which spoke with multiple people familiar with Sony’s PlayStation department, the PS5 console cost upwards of $450 to manufacture and Sony is in jeopardy to whether sell the console at loss or make some profits. Some within the company believes in taking a loss if necessary to match Microsoft’s pricing, while others prefer the more profitable approach similar to PlayStation 4 launch.
Generally, Sony finalizes the pricing of new consoles by February, but this time the company is also trying to stay competitive with Microsoft that also plans to launch its new Xbox Series X in Holiday 2020 time.
Bloomberg also noted that the CFO Totoki is also pressuring Sony to provide more transparency and information in the buildup to the PS5’s release, which has caused some consternation internally.
This rise in price is due to a number of factors such as difficulty in securing an appropriate supplier of memory, as well as a more expensive than usual cooling system due to more beefer cooling needed to handle the heat generated from new advanced hardware.
Given the specs of the PS5, the high manufacturing cost is no shocker. As for other factors, the cost of parts might not come down anytime soon as there is a threat of Coronavirus going in China due to which many plants and factories are either not fully operational or closed down.
We will have to wait and see what approach Sony takes as the PS5 release date of Holiday 2020 is still months away.
