Speaking hypothetically …
Nothing initially. Eventually may have to bring down the S price further if Sony is successful with their message of selling a fully capable console for $100 more than a “castrated” one. $100 is a lot of money, and Sony may not be able to bridge the gap,. At the high end, the X is a better value than the disk PS5
Sony will be taking a pretty big hit at $399/499. Microsoft’s whole strategy has been based around expecting that price for Sony. They don’t have to do a thing.
They just need to market the crap out of All Access. Even if someone buys a PS5DE, picking up an Xbox at the same time isn’t a crazy idea with All Access. Then they’d deprive Sony of some digital sales via Game Pass. Why buy a third party game for PS5 if I can play it on Xbox with Game Pass?
You’d be the exception, not the rule
No. Plenty of people are digital only. About 50% of game sales are digital which probably means 20-30% of people are digital only. No one in my particular circle buys physical games.
I’m all digital too
But even I’d buy the Disc based version if the price difference was only $50
If Sony is indeed 399/499 Microsoft could react in multiple ways. I refuse to believe that they couldn’t lower the price of a sku before pre-orders have even started. It’s simple if they wanted to lower the series s to 249 before launch they could. I also believe Sony looses more money on a 399$ digital than Microsoft looses on a 299$ series s. I would guess(GUESS) that series s cost around 325-350 to put on store shelves and the Digital Ps5 475-500.
Options Microsoft have is releasing a digital Xsx or a controller less bundle since controllers are forward compatible. A controllerless series s could go for 249$. A controllerless and digital xsx could go for 399$.
I still think ps5 is 449 digital and either 499 or 549 for the regular. Ps5 is going to be in limited supply for at least 6 months either way. What’s the point in going 399 when the same amount of consoles will be sold. They could cut price in spring/summer when demand has come down. That would save them 500 million$ on 10 million sales.
Nothing? Or perhaps increase the production to take advantage of the lower availability.
They planned for this scenario and Sony being stuck with a more expensive console they will likely keep pressure. Either make Sony bleed or unable to keep up with the demand.
Microsoft doesn’t need to do anything. Look at the new websites. They are leading with $25 a month. This is what they will plaster over all their commercials. Unless Sony has a plan like that of their own there is no need to change the price of the series X.
I just saw that Sony cut production of Ps5 down to 11 million units through March. That doesn’t mean 11 million on shelves by end of March as zhuge points out they will have millions less on shelves by then. Zhuge says in this twitter thread that ps4 produced 10 million units in the same Period on launch. But only about 7.5 million where on shelves by that time.
This has 2 implications. 1) Sony will be limited supply through the end of 2021. 2) manufacturing costs are higher than expected because their yield rate on the SOC is historically bad(you can likely blame the high gpu frequency for this I think).
Both those implications make it pretty dumb to price Ps5 digital at 399. Just cut price early 2022 when demand has fallen and Their console isn’t in limited supply anymore.
This is the correct answer.
Regarding the hardware? They don’t have to do anything. They are still in a good position. The only thing that changes here is Sony goes from a bad position to also being in a good position.
Outside of that, if I were Microsoft, I would do what they haven’t really been doing so far: putting an emphasis on next gen games. Before hardware, Sony has been using their next gen games to sell the PS5. MS should be doing the same thing, assuming they have more than Halo for the next year.
Did you guys see the fact that you can apply for All Access when you pre-order? For $35 you can walk out with the most powerful console, Game Pass, Gold, and Xcloud. All Access is going to drive a lot of people to own both consoles. The value is sick. That’s really the pricing story of the new gen IMO.
Announce a bunch of a games that justify their price and the box.
Directly on the MS store? Cause I already added more than 200$ of gift cards on my Xbox account to buy the XSX while completing with my credit card and plan to take the S too D1. Please send a link.
Thanks!
I acknowledged as much. But given that digital is now the majority of the market, there’s probably a good chunk of people who’d be fine with $50 off to just keep doing what they’re doing.
I’m actually very curious to see what the production split is from Sony and whether one ends up being treated as the “real” PS5.
With the fresh tech failure rates reports, just imagine the money Sony is losing on these yields 50% & people think this console will be 399
Exactly why limit yourself over an entire generation for a $50 buck saving at the start lol seems a bit silly to me.
Looks like Game Stop right now but I’d assume it will be available everywhere that takes pre-orders and is doing All Access. No other info at this time though.
https://twitter.com/videogamedeals/status/1305714769333280770?s=09
This is why I think there has to be a $100 difference between the digital only and regular PS5. If it’s only a $50 difference then the disc PS5 will look good. If it’s a $100 difference, that will push people considering the disc version to going digital.
Thanks I will ask MS if they do it also directly via their own store too.