PS4 initial cost analysis

Oh how I would love for Sony to just walk walk up to the mic and say 299.

you want to see sony go bankrupt ? If the wii u is loosing money at 300/350 how would the ps4 do at 300 ? Even here people are figuring over $300-$400 without production , shipping , packaging and advertising factored in and perhaps not even the liscenses to amd for the chips.

I don't think sony can handle another 2-3 years of heavy losses on consoles. $300 would also kill the ps3 which is still at $300. It would effectively kill off any revenue stream the ps3 would bring in for them. Surely they could cut the ps3 price later this year to $200 but who would buy a ps3 at $200 when you can get the 4 at $300. So will they take losses on the ps3 and sell it at $100 ?

Doesn't seem likely to me. I would assume $400/$500 (hardrive size maybe some other add ins) and the ps3 dropping to $200.


at least the ps3 had a good 2 years or so with the ps2 still selling extremely well and still selling a lot of software.

But at the same time if ms can price cheaper the ps3 market can still get eaten up by a $100 xbox 360 and $300/$400 xbox next (if ms's console does slot in cheaper which who actually knows at this point)
 
Yea agree with this....but if sony launches a console at $499 and microsoft launches at $399 with kinect2 bundled...just which one is going to be bought for the kiddies this Christmas? ?

$499 is to high for a mass market appeal. .perhaps ps4 will be a luxury product and ps3 is still good enough for mass market appeal at $199...but that isnt exactly cheap either for a budget option... $99 for a 360 would hit the mark better.

Which ever way you swing it...price and feature set is going to play a massive part...especially in a recession.

Thats not even accounting for a mobile phone like subsidised contact. ..can you imagine xbox 720 $199 with $15 a month 2 year contract? ? Kinect2, blueray, ,media centre pc/slingbox and cable box replacement all thrown in?

Dont discount it out.
 
I thought that was done by the video encode/decode modules in the AMD GPU?

Yes, I don't think it's likely to be a physically separate chip. The VCE in AMD GPUs already appear to have every needed feature, including using the framebuffer as a source, and multiplexing multiple streams to mix in user commentary, for example.

The "background download chip" could also just be an oblique mention of the hardware zlib decompression block we've heard about.

In both cases their costs would be included in the price of the APU.

I do wonder about the weird mention the Vita got at the beginning of the event. Something about unlocking its potential. I could imagine them putting the Vita SoC inside every PS4 to do all the media streaming and background processes, while simultaneously allowing them to sell Vita games to PS4 owners.
 
If you read what you quoted I already stated their is 2 (that we know about) customer chips, what I'm saying is you cannot call one an OS chip just because it controls background downloading and uploading or compressing video
Well, people are gonna call it something. ;) If it's not CPU or GPU, and not DSP, it's an OS chip...
 
My guess for components:
$80 for ~300mm^2 28nm APU
$80 for GDDR5
$80 for bluray reader, hard drive and PSEYE
$80 for motherboard, I/O, Wifi, bluetooth
$100 for PSU, cooling, case, manufacturing, DS4 controller and cheap headset
+$30 just to be safe
=
$450

Price it $400 in USA and eat some losses and bring back lost money with Europe [400€ = over $500].
 
Would including Other OS in the system affect cost to distribute?

I can't remember why PS3 had Other OS. Wasn't part of the reason to be considered a computer or something and avoid one particular tax in EU?

I wonder if something similar will be tried. They even filed one of the PS3 systems under a different company needs or something?
 
Would including Other OS in the system affect cost to distribute?

I can't remember why PS3 had Other OS. Wasn't part of the reason to be considered a computer or something and avoid one particular tax in EU?
No. That tax had been repealed by PS3's release IIRC, and even if not, that strategy didn't work with PS2 so I doubt it'd have worked with PS3 and been a target strategy. The reason for Other OS IMO was to get people developing on Cell, as STI needed Cell experience to expand their new hardware platform. Only it didn't happen, homebrew turned its nose up at Cell, so Sony gave up altogether. No need for OtherOS, no need for Cell, shut up shop and move on. There's no value to Other OS in PS4. It'd just mean Steam Linux on PS4 and Sony missing sales. ;)
 
Interesting. I always found it's inclusion kind of perplexing in PS3.

I mean... it was cool I guess... but confusing :)

It would be really fun to see if someone hacked a PS4 to run Windows though :)
 
Interesting. I always found it's inclusion kind of perplexing in PS3.

I mean... it was cool I guess... but confusing :)

It would be really fun to see if someone hacked a PS4 to run Windows though :)

Won't happen as that would require manufacturer drivers for much of the hardware. The GPU for instance.

Regards,
SB
 
It would be really fun to see if someone hacked a PS4 to run Windows though :)
I hope the next-gen consoles don't get hacked. I hope lessons learnt this gen will be enough to lock them down tightly and protect the software developers and services. Worst case, Sony's idea of remote play allowing someone else to take over control of your game would see random people screwing up other people's play!
 
I hope the next-gen consoles don't get hacked.

I strongly believe both companies (MS, Sony) will pay way more attention on security this time.
Not only due to the revenue losses, but also to the increased risks due to privacy policies (i.e. see the costs of PSN hack).
 
Sony did a superb job with PS3 save for that idiotic critical failure. Lesson learned, they should be in a great place next-gen.
 
Its really impossible to say about the cost without knowing the deals for the APU and GDDR5. They should target 399 for main sku no matter what
 
I hope the next-gen consoles don't get hacked. I hope lessons learnt this gen will be enough to lock them down tightly and protect the software developers and services. Worst case, Sony's idea of remote play allowing someone else to take over control of your game would see random people screwing up other people's play!

OK well when you put it that way... Lol, I definitely hope not then too...

I was always amazed this generation at how Sony locked down their hardware this generation. Is hardware security getting ahead of homebrew hackers now?

I only ask because is there some critical point where hackers self learning gets to a rough limit? Why are the new consoles more difficult? I always wondered if it was because PS3 hardware security is so much stronger or are the systems just getting significantly more complicated that they are much harder to hack, or are these simply one in the same?
 
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