£699 / $699 / €7(seven!)99 😯
Ooof! That is a lot of cash to splash!
I know there is a lot of love from the most vocal fans and from the games press for whatever the latest console tech upgrade is…BUT I don’t think people realise quite how important the price of a console is to its sales potential.
I spent years digging though lots of really detailed data on this and unless the nature of the console audience has completely reversed over recent years, it is still a *highly price-elastic market* This means people simply won’t buy something if they feel the price is too high.
You gotta drop price from these levels to get that crucial installed base up. It is a very competitive market…Switch / Xbox / PC and cheaper model PS5s are all real options…as is waiting until the next deep promo discount.
Its easy to lose sight of this wider reality. In the industry we’re always in a bit of a bubble…surrounded by people who play (& make) lots of games…and therefore who prioritise spend on that hobby extremely (unnaturally?) highly. That’s fine for your first few superfan sales, but it wont get the mass market.
Maybe that’s not the point here…maybe its simply a flex from Sony to show their technical chops to their most loyal fans. The ultimate point of a corporation is to make money though, and I can’t see how such a niche product is going to help them do that…
BTW – good balanced BBC article below including insightful comments from Piers Harding-Rolls and Christopher Dring.
Here’s the link to the original article: [LINK].
Chris Bain
