I think once the pro comes out, the base model will drop to around 299-349. Sony seems to like that price point for that second half of the life cycle.
Why do people keep on overlooking Moore's Law?
We have x86 CPUs magnitudes more powerful for as much if not less than we did decades ago. Sony's strategy has focused on die shrinks within each gen, which reduce costs.
Not a chance. By the end of this year I expect the most expensive PS5 on the market o be $399. You may have to buy a $100 disc drive for it, but technically, the cost of the PS5 would be $399 and that would be the only model available.
There is no evidence to suggest that is what sony is more interested in. And further more, people keep paying this inflation card when comparing console prices today vs some gens ago... but conveniently forget that these consoles today have way more revenue sreams than say, the PS2.
I get why people think this, and I could certainly be wrong. I think Sony is looking to become significantly more profitable and part of that is selling hardware at a profit.
Sony sold the PS4 Pro for 400 dollars and the PS5 Digital for 400 dollars. They discontinued the PS4 Pro, they didn't just drop the price to 350 or 300. Yet here they are, still selling the PS4 Standard for 299.
The PS4 launched for 400 and NEVER dropped below 300, even after the PS5 launched, particularly the PS5 digital.
The PS4 has been 300 dollars for the last SEVEN years.
PS3 dropped to as low as 269.
The strategy IS changing here. The PS5 is going to be around for a LONG time and I don't think Sony wants to keep selling it at 400 dollars. If they did, they would have produced more PS5 Digitals this whole time, but instead the sku has leaned significantly more to the physical unit. This is despite the Digital locking them into digital sales, which will largely be the case going forward with the PS5 Slim despite the attachment.
This is an opportunity for Sony to re-price the PS5 DE *AND* sell the attachment for probably 50-100 dollars.
Sony is taking a lot of their pricing strategy from Nintendo. We see it with software and we're now starting to see it with hardware. We'll find out soon enough, but I don't think a 400-dollar price point pushes PS5s marginally faster than what exists today nor do I think that Sony wants to eschew billions of dollars over the course of the PS5s lifetime when they don't have to.