Sony and Microsoft have kept the price points of their next generation consoles in the dark. It seems like they are waiting on each other to announce their pricing.
Long time industry analyst Michael Patcher believes that Microsoft will not only wait for Sony to show their hand, but that they will go beyond matching Sony’s price point by actually offering a cheaper console at launch.
When Microsoft’s Jason Ronald stated that they developed the console with an affordable price point in mind, I read between the lines the intention of pricing the Series X as close as possible even matching the price of Sony’s upcoming PS5. Patcher believes Microsoft will go further than that, and drop $100 dollars of whatever Sony’s price for the PS5 will be.
There is a rumored $500 price point for the PS5, can Microsoft really do $400?
Yes. It would lose a substantial amount of money per console sold, but Microsoft’s pockets are deep, and they can more than afford such loses if it ensures them an early hot start. They would flip the tables on Sony this time around by offering better hardware at a lower price point.
Microsoft has been aggressive from the moment that they unveiled the Series X. They have shown games, announced exclusive titles, and have boasted openly about how powerful their hardware is in comparison to Sony’s. It would make sense that they would be as aggressive when it comes to the pricing of the machine. Microsoft is in it to win it, and nothing would help more in that regard than having a cheaper console at launch.
Is Sony’s silence a sign of trouble for the PS5?
Not necessarily. Sony has been quiet, that is the truth. Heck, we have yet to see how the console will actually look. Sony itself is actually waiting on Microsoft to unveil its price point, as it seems (especially now with the pandemic going on) that an affordable price point will be key in defining sales this holiday season.
That said, Sony has been dominant this generation with nearly 110 million PS4 units to Xbox One’s 48 million units. They are in the driver’s seat, and it will take a herculean effort to unseat them, but shades of the PS3 generation (the only time a Playstation console wasn’t dominant) must be on the back of the company’s executives minds.
We haven’t seen games, but we have the seen the spec sheet, and while impressive, it pales in comparison to Series X’s tech specs. Questions about the ability of the PS5 to implement Ray Tracing on large open world games have arisen all over the net, and Sony has done little to silence the doubters.
What Happens During Sony’s Rumored June Unveil?
I assume that they will actually name a price for the PS5 after showing the physical appearance of the Machine. I have to hope that they will also reveal a potential first party heavy hitter in order to go head to head with Halo Infinite. Sony has been awfully secretive, but I wouldn’t be shocked if we got a Remastered version of the Last of Us 2 for the PS5 at Launch as it would provide the system with a big name title. Other than that, perhaps Guerrilla Games will surprise us with Horizon Zero Dawn 2, if not as a launch title, at least as trailer during Sony’s inevitable PS5 games reveal.
It is either that, or we get a pedestrian launch lineup spear headed by third party games that you can also play on the Xbox Series X, and it wouldn’t be the first time that Sony does this (weak launch line up).
Their launch lineups for all of their previous consoles have been lacking, and apart from the PS3’s early struggles, it seems that the Playstation brand is immune to failure as a consequence of early lack of killer apps.
Will Patcher’s prediction come to pass?
I firmly believed in a previous article that Microsoft would at least match the PS5’s price point. I wouldn’t be surprised if they drop $100 from whatever price Sony ends up announcing. Microsoft has been aggressive, and it would be in character for them to do so at this point as they need to steal some of the thunder from the PS5’s hype machine.
So yes, if Sony drops a $500 price tag on the PS5, I can see Microsoft doing $400. If instead, Sony goes for a $400 price point, I would bet on Microsoft to match the price tag. Anything lower than $400 would be madness for either company though.
Some really interesting Summer months await us as both companies keep ramping up their marketing campaigns towards the Fall.