PS4 Sell Through 91.6 Million Units & Spider-Man 9 Million Units Sold

[Shifty Geezer]

We know price reduction flexibility is much reduced. These are the die shrinks that happened for PS2...

PS4 has only had one, from 28nm to 16nm. Until there's a better node available in terms of cost savings of tech plus price due to demand for better nodes for other sectors like mobile that PS2 didn't have to contend with, PS4 can't price reduce the core silicon. HDD prices can't get cheaper than the cheapest already in use. ODD won't get cheaper than the cheapest already in use. RAM prices may drop a bit. Other components cost the same unless the board overall can be shrunk through lower power.

The only real option probably is the rumoured XB1 diskless SKU. A die shrink coupled with ODD removal, box shrink, flash instead of HDD, would allow a notably cheaper base price. That's not really on the cards until there's a node suitable. Can anyone suggest when that'd be?

 

[Shortbread]

We know price reduction flexibility is much reduced. These are the die shrinks that happened for PS2...

PS4 has only had one, from 28nm to 16nm. Until there's a better node available in terms of cost savings of tech plus price due to demand for better nodes for other sectors like mobile that PS2 didn't have to contend with, PS4 can't price reduce the core silicon. HDD prices can't get cheaper than the cheapest already in use. ODD won't get cheaper than the cheapest already in use. RAM prices may drop a bit. Other components cost the same unless the board overall can be shrunk through lower power.

The only real option probably is the rumoured XB1 diskless SKU. A die shrink coupled with ODD removal, box shrink, flash instead of HDD, would allow a notably cheaper base price. That's not really on the cards until there's a node suitable. Can anyone suggest when that'd be?

I could be wrong on this, but there was an article teardown on PS2's BOM cost. During that time period, the Emotion Engine and Graphic Synthesizer were considered some of the most expensive chips ever. BOM cost being $480-$525 by some estimates. Sony was reportedly absorbing $180-$188 in cost for each unit sold on meeting PS2's launch price of $299 (competing against Sega's already released Dreamcast of $199, and Nintendo's upcoming Gamecube of $199). I also believe the article stated that some of the PS2 long lifespan was due to Sony recouping those earlier losses. Luckily the PS2 was a success on doing so.

 

[vipa899]

The EE was more expensive for sony then the costum p3 for MS?

 

[Shortbread]

The EE was more expensive for sony then the costum p3 for MS?

Can't say. I haven't seen any material cost articles on the original Xbox.

 

[Nesh]

I could be wrong on this, but there was an article teardown on PS2's BOM cost. During that time period, the Emotion Engine and Graphic Synthesizer were considered some of the most expensive chips ever. BOM cost being $480-$525 by some estimates. Sony was reportedly absorbing $180-$188 in cost for each unit sold on meeting PS2's launch price of $299 (competing against Sega's already released Dreamcast of $199, and Nintendo's upcoming Gamecube of $199). I also believe the article stated that some of the PS2 long lifespan was due to Sony recouping those earlier losses. Luckily the PS2 was a success on doing so.

Man the PS3 must have been a financial disaster. Estimated BOM was at around $800 if not more with less flexibility to reduce costs. And that wasnt even close at reaching PS1 levels of success eventually

 

[London Geezer]

Man the PS3 must have been a financial disaster. Estimated BOM was at around $800 if not more with less flexibility to reduce costs. And that wasnt even close at reaching PS1 levels of success eventually

It really was. Almost ruined Sony!

 

[Shortbread]

Man the PS3 must have been a financial disaster. Estimated BOM was at around $800 if not more with less flexibility to reduce costs. And that wasnt even close at reaching PS1 levels of success eventually

Sony's vision for PS3 was really clouded by PS2's success. Sony seriously miscalculated consumers willingness (or lack of) towards purchasing expensive gaming consoles (during that period of time anyhow)... the success of XB360 and Wii.... the format battle between blu-ray & HD-DVD... and the major losses they were taking on PS3 units. Sony arrogantly thought Microsoft wasn't a threat, that Nintendo gotten beaten two generations straight, and the PS3 could recapture that PS2 magic in a lather, rinse, repeat sort of fashion.

 

[Nesh]

Sony's vision for PS3 was really clouded by PS2's success. Sony seriously miscalculated consumers willingness (or lack of) towards purchasing expensive gaming consoles (during that period of time anyhow)... the success of XB360 and Wii.... the format battle between blu-ray & HD-DVD... and the major losses they were taking on PS3 units. Sony arrogantly thought Microsoft wasn't a threat, that Nintendo gotten beaten two generations straight, and the PS3 could recapture that PS2 magic in a lather, rinse, repeat sort of fashion.

Oh I know. I do believe though that Sony could have obliterated competition fully if they made the right decisions. The market was mostly anticipating for Sony's next console. Sony could have hit a sweet pricing+performance spot and release the console on time if they didn't think of it as a trojan horse for other products that could sell at "any" price. Competition wasnt really that much of a thread until Sony handed them over the market.

 

[Tkumpathenurple]

Oh I know. I do believe though that Sony could have obliterated competition fully if they made the right decisions. The market was mostly anticipating for Sony's next console. Sony could have hit a sweet pricing+performance spot and release the console on time if they didn't think of it as a trojan horse for other products that could sell at "any" price. Competition wasnt really that much of a thread until Sony handed them over the market.

Possibly, but it's benefitted all of us for them to fuck up like they did.

They weren't able to rely on third parties like they had done with the PS2, and had to invest in first party content. It also proved that you can't just hand a puzzle box to developers and say "figure it out, dipshits."

So that's lead them to where they are today. For gamers: strong first party exclusives. For developers: powerful tools coupled with relatively straightforward hardware.

 

[Theeoo]

Man the PS3 must have been a financial disaster. Estimated BOM was at around $800 if not more with less flexibility to reduce costs. And that wasnt even close at reaching PS1 levels of success eventually

But it won Sony the HD disc format war, so maybe that evened things out a bit?

 

[goonergaz]

But it won Sony the HD disc format war, so maybe that evened things out a bit?

I agree WRT Bluray, Sony were likely ready to take a big hit and gamble on that which (possibly) paid off. I look at those charts showing how deep Sony were in when PS3 launched and it's amazing how they managed to claw themselves out of that hole with that 'disaster'!

 

[Nesh]

Possibly, but it's benefitted all of us for them to fuck up like they did.

They weren't able to rely on third parties like they had done with the PS2, and had to invest in first party content. It also proved that you can't just hand a puzzle box to developers and say "figure it out, dipshits."

So that's lead them to where they are today. For gamers: strong first party exclusives. For developers: powerful tools coupled with relatively straightforward hardware.

Sony was always investing in first party games. Just like they do now despite their massive success.
Sony could have gone the proper route and designed the PS3 with more focus on gaming and software development from the get go. The "mistake" was not doing that. What you call "benefit" are the corrective measures they had to implement to get back in the game.
The benefit is a mixed bag. If the PS3 came at the right time at the right price with the right performance, it would have won the market and we would still enjoy the benefits. With MS in the picture console gaming was evolving in two ways. The MS route which would make the consoles a platform that would have unified with and supported PC gaming or the Sony route where consoles would have been a unique parallel product. Sony was laying the foundations for a parallel market that could have co existed and could have potentially competed with the PC space in the future. That could have brought very interesting developments in the industry. Since Sony failed to have success with the PS3, the console industry hastened towards one direction, the "safe" route, where the hardware is sold at a brake even price point and is dependent on what's available on the PC side of things. Game development also takes into consideration the PC game portability. This reduces incentives to create or take advantage of special hardware custom features available on consoles unless the same feature exists and is used in PC development. Thus consoles this generation were kind of underwhelming compared to the hardware upgrades we got in the past
Mark Cerny's vision of how asynchronous compute would have been taken advantage in the middle of the console's life cycle did not come fully into fruition.

 

[lefantome]

They need to lower the base price this year, it's too high now, people are going to wait for discounts.

OT/

It still pisses me off that we don't know how many units PS3 and 360 shipped in the last generation, the data we have misses the last few years.

 

[goonergaz]

They need to lower the base price this year, it's too high now, people are going to wait for discounts.

OT/

It still pisses me off that we don't know how many units PS3 and 360 shipped in the last generation, the data we have misses the last few years.

I thought it was pretty much agreed they were both at about 84m?

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I thought it was pretty much agreed they were both at about 84m?

We stopped getting the numbers before the final total was achieved. I think both of them sold more than 84M. Xbox 360 was announced to have shipped 84M units in the summer of 2014, the production was announced to have stopped in April 2016. PS3 stopped production in 2017, having at least 84M sales in Q1 2015. I think there was at least a few million on top of those 84M, but who knows?

 

[lefantome]

We stopped getting the numbers before the final total was achieved. I think both of them sold more than 84M. Xbox 360 was announced to have shipped 84M units in the summer of 2014, the production was announced to have stopped in April 2016. PS3 stopped production in 2017, having at least 84M sales in Q1 2015. I think there was at least a few million on top of those 84M, but who knows?

That's 2 and 3 more holiday seasons for them.

I guess they are both above 85, maybe PS3 above 90.

It's sad that their design was so bad that they could not be sold at lower prices at the end of their lifecycles, this severely limited their sales.
Both of them could have surpassed Wii easily.