Aside from all of the awesome games coming out this year, we’ve also got a fleet of next-gen consoles on the way.
It’s kind of a struggle with riches in 2020 because there are so many different things to track and monitor. Sometimes big news gets lost in the chaos… such as the PlayStation 5’s launch and games.
One big thing that many consumers are latching on to at this stage and probably for the first six months will be the PlayStation 5 price and we’ve heard that Sony was going to try to keep the machine reasonable.
Now, however, we’re getting word that the company is struggling with that and who knows how much the PS5 will end up costing or if it will be closer to $500 rather than the goal Sony has previously set at $450.
A major factor that could impact this in the short term is the coronavirus epidemic in China and the effect this could have on the overall supply chain. The launch price for the console is of particular importance for the kickoff of this generation for multiple reasons.
There is the traditional reason that consumers could be tempted away by a cheaper competitor, but there is also the fact that this year has more stellar games coming out for last-gen systems than ever before. Most systems are wrapping it up at this point but the PS4 and Xbox One don’t show many signs of slowing down with Cyberpunk 2077, Resident Evil 3 Remake, and the FFVII Remake on the way, among others.
Of course, the real nightmare scenario for each could be for both Microsoft and Sony that nobody cares to upgrade just yet given the other pressures on our wallets which would make the worry over debut price somewhat moot. Sony Executive Hiroki Totoki was quoted by Eurogamer as saying, “Because we are competing in this space – it’s very difficult to discuss anything about the price at this point. Depending upon the price level, we may have to determine the promotion that we are going to deploy and how much costs we are prepared to pay. So it’s a question of balance.”
Two major sticking points for the PS5’s production have to do with its flash memory – components it shares with many of the most popular smartphone models out there currently. As most of you are well aware, smartphone sales continue to boom and that overlap could really throw a wrench in Sony’s plans.
There are also reports that the next-gen PlayStation uses a very sophisticated (read: expensive) cooling system in order to keep the console going full bore. Many analysts also think Sony could be stalling for time in order to force Microsoft to reveal the price of its machine first.
One famous example of one company revealing a price before a competitor only to regret it later was when the Sega Saturn debuted early and Sony undercut all of its momentum with a simple announcement of the PlayStation coming in at a point $100 lower.
