Sony’s PlayStation 4 is likely to debut later this year at sub-$400 price point. According to Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, the Japanese-based company has been “negatively impacted” from launching the PlayStation 3 at an extremely high price of $600.
“Given that experience, we believe Sony will aim to keep the price point for PlayStation 4 below $400,” Bhatia said in an industry note obtained by GameSpot.
The analyst added that Sony will stick with a sub-$400 price point – even if the industry heavyweight lost money on the console itself.
Bhatia’s pricing expectations for Sony’s next-gen console are similar to those of Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, who recently said he believed the system will be hitting the streets for approximately $349.
“For the PS4, we remain confident that the new console will have a lower initial MSRP than the PS3, which had a lofty starting price of $599 that we believe negatively impacted its long-term popularity. We expect the PS4 to debut at $349, as our estimate of the bill of materials is $275,” Pachter opined.
“[Meanwhile], our estimate of the bill of materials for the Xbox One (based upon speculation regarding many of the specs) is around $325, suggesting that Microsoft could make a modest profit at the $399 price point.”
