After the recent next gen hardware information dumps from both Microsoft and Sony, there’s one area that remains a mystery – Series X and PlayStation 5 pricing structures. Without that, we can but speculate on what may be deemed as value for money. And, you know what? That’s exactly what I intend to do.
The term value is one that appears from time-to-time in the gaming industry. It’s safe to say most video game consoles offer decent value over the lifecycle of a generation, with the PS4 and Xbox One consoles both approaching their seventh year on the market as a shining example. Aside from the early-life console failures – the likes of the Switch’s drifting Joy-Con to the ear drum-popping fan of the PS4 Pro, or even the infamous Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death – gamers will often get a decade or more out of their machines, without the need to frequently upgrade in a way one would associate with expensive smart devices.
Value is in the PS Eye of the Beholder
Value truly is subjective of course, and usage will vary massive in an industry that caters for gamers of all types, but the fact remains that buying into a console ecosystem continues to be an extremely attractive proposition to the average consumer, with an estimated 216 million of the three current generation systems (and their variant models) sold worldwide according to VGC at the time of writing. More pertinently the launch sales of the PS4 were nothing short of phenomenal. The point being: plenty of those people believe it’s worth the asking price.
Why then, does the term ‘value’ strike fear in many-a-gamer when it’s used by PR? I am of course referencing recent comments made by PlayStation chief exec Jim Ryan during a BBC interview earlier this month. After being questioned on pricing and global economic uncertainty, Ryan stated:
‘Conventional wisdom and history show that our business is one of the more recession-proof businesses. But I think this will sharpen our need to ensure that we focus on getting the value equation right. And I emphasise value as opposed to price.’
Careful Wording
It’s easy to dismiss this sort of meaningless ‘PR-speak’ for what it is; an unwillingness to answer the question based on a business decision, and let’s face it, Sony may simply be trying to throw a curve ball in, before offering a low price that no one expected. However, on the face of it, it appears an attempt to soften the blow of a likely demand for a substantial wad of cash.
The games industry has a record of resisting natural inflation and tax-related price increases in both the UK and the US, something we benefit from more than in other areas of entertainment. Indeed ‘recession-proof’ isn’t far off the mark after the 2007-2008 global financial crash had relatively little effect on the world of video games.
Financial Kinections
The PlayStation 3 launch, however, serves as a stark reminder of what happens when a company strays too far from the norm with pricing (doom). And let’s just forget the nightmare of the Xbox One’s Kinect-driven pricing.
In my opinion though, the rhetoric to date, even without the PR ‘value’ speak, is suggesting we can expect to pay well in excess of last generation’s equivalent. Anecdotally, people appear to be largely in agreement on this point.
With fewer off-the-shelf parts, market-leading SSD tech (in the case of PS5, at least) and ray-tracing features thought only possible on Nvidia’s RTX series of GPUs for the consumer market, I believe there is more than enough to justify pricing of around $650/£600 but strongly suspect, in the aftermath of a pandemic-driven economic shakeup and changing trade deals, it’s going to come down to who is prepared to take the biggest hit. To look at ‘value’ in another way, you would have an extremely hard time building a comparatively performing PC at this sort of cost.
My Dad’s Richer Than Your Dad
The reality of the situation is that Microsoft have near endless resources and the Xbox brand is currently very profitable. It would be easy to suggest the larger war chest would mean they would more readily take a heavier loss on each console. However, Xbox have made it abundantly clear they will not lose the so-called ‘power race’ and intend to put out the more technically robust offering of the two new major 2020 consoles. They also are steering towards a larger cross-device branding for Xbox for which we will see integration of their Azure-powered streaming platform xCloud.
Offering many and easier ways to be involved in the top-tier of console-style gaming, while offer the Series X as the premium top-end way to do so says to me they’re not going to be in rush to undercut the PS5.
It’s worth bearing in mind that, while Sony don’t necessarily have the financial means to directly compete in a race-to-the-bottom where PlayStation 5 pricing is concerned, they might not have to. What’s more, the PlayStation brand is the most profitable area of Sony’s business. Don’t forget, this is a massive global corporation that will push its flagship as much as it needs to.
The Shirt Off My Back
In closing, I’m going to take a stab at the cost of both consoles based on my own musings. I reckon the PlayStation 5 will launch at $499/£479 for the full-fat disc-drive version and $450/£430 for the digital version.
Perhaps we sound rebrand them all the digital only consoles to the ‘SAD’ version, (even without the ‘S’) because that’s how the all-digital future makes me feel.
I digress. The Series X? I think we’ll see a console that comes packaged as standard with a game, perhaps Halo, and certainly a few months of Game Pass. But that will be a scheme to help you swallow a price tag of €650/£600.
Games will be probably be €70/£60 a pop for both in the beginning. Get saving, folks. Not long to go. I’ve never been so excited at the prospect of potentially having to sell a kidney. Good times, and definitely good value.