Rumored $500+ PlayStation 5 Launch Price Would be a Disaster for Sony
Sony won the current console generation by making all the right moves, including catering to gamers and its pricing strategy. | Source: (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
A European retailer operating out of Slovakia appears to have revealed not only the release date of Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 5 console but the launch price as well.
The listing on retailer Progamingshop’s website allows users to pre-order the PlayStation 5 for the princely sum of 499.99€ ($556) in anticipation of release on Dec. 4 next year.
Slovakian Retailer ‘Leaks’ PlayStation 5 Release Date and Price
Programingshop is indeed a genuine retailer, so there’s no doubt the listing in real, but it isn’t exactly the most polished we’ve seen.
The image of the PlayStation 5 is quite simply a copy-paste of the product renders based on the devkit patent created by web site Let’sGoDigital . It’s the closest we currently have to the real thing, but it doesn’t exactly instill confidence for potential buyers having to part with 500 €.
As for the description, it cleverly markets all the little snippets we’ve been privy to up until now into a semi-cohesive blurb but doesn’t offer anything new in terms of specifications and features; AMD Radeon Navi based GPU, SSD, new haptic controller, and crazy backward compatibility.
Although the release date is very specific, it’s hard to argue it’s not in the right ballpark. Sony’s announcement last month pinpointed a holiday period 2020 launch, and Dec. 4 seems as likely as any other day in the lead up the Christmas period. We’ll reserve judgment on that one until we get official word from the horse’s mouth.
The Price Has To Be Right
If there’s any truth to the 500€ / $550 price tag, then Sony may be playing with fire. We immediately get flashbacks to the ill-fated PlayStation 3 pricing announcement at E3 2006 . The $500 and $600 price points (differing based on hard-drive capacity), primed competitor Microsoft’s Xbox 360 for success, and we all know how that turned out. The stratospheric success of the PlayStation 2 blinkered Sony’s vision for the future and it clearly misread the market.
While Sony has done incredibly well this generation both in terms of unit sales and garnering positive public opinion from gamers, an exorbitant PlayStation 5 launch price could quite easily undo all of that hard work.
Sony and Microsoft generally manufacture and sell new consoles at a loss only to recuperate costs via game sales later on, so there is a business incentive to raise prices to mitigate the use of much more expensive next-generation components. This makes sense. But the issue lies in whether the average consumer is willing to fork out $550 for an unproven product, especially if Microsoft’s Project Scarlet is priced more competitively.
As always, early listings aren’t to be taken as gospel so throw in a pint glass-sized dose of salt on this one.
