Eurogamer are reporting that Sony won’t make a profit on the PS4 hardware at launch, but expects to after a typical users buys a PlayStation Plus subscription and at least one launch title.
They appear to be selling the system at around a $60 loss, which isn’t too far from the retail price of a game in the US or a one year PlayStation Plus subscription. Naturally, with these two combined after cuts going to retailers, developers and such, Sony expect to recoup those losses.
It’s a good strategy, allowing them for the low price point of $399 (or £349 in the UK). Masayasu Ito, a Sony Japan executive expects that they’ll turn a profit with the PS4 sooner than they managed with the PS3.
This seems like a strong strategy, and it really feels as though Sony know what they are doing heading into their next generation launch.
Bilbo_bobbins
thats great news and note much of a loss on selling the hardware alone anyway. Much better than the PS3 and they expect to sell more consoles and more P+ subs.
bunimomike
Agreed, fella. I can see that £60 loss being cancelled out in twelve months once manufacturing costs come down.
bunimomike
My apologies. Sixty dollars. :-)
JR.
I’m signed up to plus until Feb 2015 so I’ll probably pick up two games at launch. AC4 and Knack (if I can find it cheap enough). I was considering whether or not to keep my PS4 pre-order because I’ve stil got a massive backlog of PS3 games to get through (Saints Row 4, GTA V (I gave in…), Remember Me, Beyond Two Souls, Rain + About 10 PS plus games I haven’t played yet) but I cant bring myself to cancel it. I dont really ‘need’ a PS4 right now. I just want it because it’s new :/
ohmikkie
i’m exactly in the same boat. but i am intrigued with Planetside 2 though since I’ve spent most of my gaming hours this year playing it on the PC.
SilverCider
Exactly my thoughts, an accumulation through Steam sales and general lack of playing through my final year at University has burdened me with far too many games that I’m yet to even start! But shiny new toy springs to mind :P
double-o-dave
I might wander over and pick my PS4 up at midnight when its launched. I don’t suffer from the backlog thing. Only 3 or 4 games a year catch my attention nowadays, once they’re completed I spend most of my time on BF.
I think in about 2 years I’ve only played BF3, The Last of Us, Max Payne 3, Tombraider, bout 10% of Assassins Crap 3 & now… GTA V. Maybe a couple more as well, can’t remember
Klart
Nothing like playing a brand new next gen console at launch!
blarty
I’ve got 4 games pre-ordered and a launch day PS4, and my lad has asked for one for his birthday/Christmas present but that was ordered after the launch day cut off… plus he’ll need a PS+ sub and I’ll be extending mine soon anyway. I may possibly pick up the PS4 camera as well.
On the whole though I think they have really thought their margins and upfront loss through properly with the PS4 hardware.
cam the man
Glad to see Sony’s loss is nowhere near what they lost on each PS3 sold at the start of it’s life cycle. With PS+ this will hopefully result in Sony investing in a more robust PSN.
Scythegpd
Better than PS3. Still not ideal (ideal is no loss but that’s rare outside pre-WiiU Nintendo).
However certainly the early adopters will full the slack with accessories and games. And hopefully by the time that early adopter demand/hype dies down after a few months the console it itself will be profitable
cam the man
If they kept to the original plan they would have had a minimal loss for each console sold. Shuhei Yoshida said at TGS that they were going for 4GB but decided to up it after “a lot of the feedback from developers”.
Glad they did!
Erroneus
Lucky for Sony they have UK and EU then.
459$ is 339€ or 286£, which means they will not loose money on selling it in EU and UK, far from it, actually they have quite an incentive to push lots of consoles to UK.
Scythegpd
Not really.
£349 ex vat is around £290 … before import taxes, distributor mark-up etc.
Just because the PS4 sells at a price doesn’t mean 100% of that price ends up in the Sony bank account. You’de be surprised just how little of the £349 ends up with Sony
Erroneus
I know, it’s not that simple, and the 60$ they are loosing per console, has to be measured by the sale price to their distrubitors, but I’m pretty sure they are still earning more from sales in EU and UK.
cam the man
There’s no import duty on consoles coming into the EU from Japan.
(USA price is before local taxes are added.)
Scythegpd
Are you sure there’s no import taxes?
I know computers don’t incur import taxes, which is why there was a protracted case involving the PS2 where Sony was trying to get it defined as a computer.
They lost that one, have things changed with the PS3 and 4?
Last I knew consoles incurred taxes, computers didn’t. Something about necessity (computer) versus luxury (console), similar to why some grocery items incur VAT and some don’t.
HunterGatherer
Someone that doesn’t understand economics.
US prices don’t include sales tax. UK prices include 20 percent vat, 10 percent eu import duties for goods manufactured outside the eu.