*spin-off* Console Launch Price Discussion

[anexanhume]

PS4 launch price will be 400+

http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/6/3961512/ps4-price-and-release-date-in-asahi-shimbun-report

I think they'll be fine as long as they have one 399 or less SKU.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

That will potentially be interesting if the base model of Orbis goes for 399 USD while the base model of Durango goes for 299 USD. Then again MS could just say hell with it, launch at a same price, get more profit, and then see if they need to reduce price.

Regards,
SB

 

[Averagejoe]

That will potentially be interesting if the base model of Orbis goes for 399 USD while the base model of Durango goes for 299 USD. Then again MS could just say hell with it, launch at a same price, get more profit, and then see if they need to reduce price.

Regards,
SB

Considering the xbox 360 still is $300 i don't think the 720 will release for less than $399,MS didn't do an extremely powerful console for profits reason,so selling the 720 for $299 is highly unlikely.

 

[djskribbles]

MS will probably cut the price by the time the 720 is released (as will Sony with the PS3). But I don't expect the 720 to be less than 349. I'm guessing 349 and 399 respectively.

 

[rockaman]

Considering the xbox 360 still is $300 i don't think the 720 will release for less than $399,MS didn't do an extremely powerful console for profits reason,so selling the 720 for $299 is highly unlikely.

I don't think the 360 is selling for $299 right now, at least not a model with just the machine itself and a controller. That seems way too high.

PS3 is selling $249 regular, and 360 has undercut it this entire generation.

---

I will be willing to pay $449 at launch, provided Orbis is 'the machine to get.'

If it has the parts, I will be willing to drop the money for it. Depending on how Playstation Meeting, GDC, and E3 goes will determine what price Sony will get from me

 

[Aeoniss]

PS4 launch price will be 400+

http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/6/3961512/ps4-price-and-release-date-in-asahi-shimbun-report

I think they'll be fine as long as they have one 399 or less SKU.

Given what we "know" so far, is a $400(+) asking price reasonable considering the hardware?

Is there a summation in the kind of performance jump between the PS3 and Orbis?

8x memory

and 3-4x bandwidth

But how does the 8 core Jaguar compare to Cell? And its 14+4 CU AMD GPU vs RSX? The technology involved in these two parts is a considerable departure from the PS3. So I'm kind of having a problem determining what a reasonable asking price is given the specs and a 2013 launch date.

I'm happy they're not asking $600 for it though lol.

 

[Brad Grenz]

$399 has been the fairly obvious target price for the Orbis specs for a while.

 

[Cjail]

I hope $399 won't be "translated" into €399 or £399

 

[Nesh]

$399 has been the fairly obvious target price for the Orbis specs for a while.

At a loss I presume?

But by how much?

 

[Arwin]

I don't think that has to be at a big loss though, if you exclude investment for R&D (which I consider to be at least much lower this time for the hardware than last time ). I'd be surprised if it is over $499 and consider it fairly likely to be even.

 

[Brad Grenz]

At a loss I presume?

But by how much?

Close to break even I would think, depending on what might be packed in.

 

[Cjail]

If the 6-8GB of GDDR5 are real I definitely see Sony selling at loss.

 

[Arwin]

If the 6-8GB of GDDR5 are real I definitely see Sony selling at loss.

What do these chips cost? I genuinely have no idea, but (old!) news like this is interesting:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Elpi...Graphics-Memory-Unveils-2Gb-Chip-145368.shtml

 

[Cjail]

@Arwin

Well this is what Kb-Smoker found: "From amd 2011 bom sheet: Gddr5 costs $43.13 per 2GB [$86.26 for 4GB]"

These prices are not updated at 2013 but in a "worst case scenario" with even higher prices I say that 8GB will cost around $200
Best case scenario prices for GDDR5 are now lower than in 2011.

Also mass production generally helps to reduce the costs so I see Sony selling at loss but not that much.
And Sony might have agreement on the price with whoever provides them the GDDR5 so that for them it won't be that expensive.

 

[AlphaWolf]

What do these chips cost? I genuinely have no idea, but (old!) news like this is interesting:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Elpi...Graphics-Memory-Unveils-2Gb-Chip-145368.shtml

Mercury research posted numbers a couple years back and it was $15-$25/GB. Dunno how much that has gone down over the last couple of years and with the advent of higher density chips, but think it's safe to assume Sony isn't going to just add 2 or 4 GB of it at anything near that cost.

 

[Arwin]

Yeah, I fully agree. Even an additional price of $50 would be 'non-trivial'. But below $50 per 4GB, there is at least a chance.

 

[tunafish]

What do these chips cost? I genuinely have no idea, but (old!) news like this is interesting:

The chips don't even exist yet. Assuming a 256-bit bus, you'd need 4Gb chips to put 8GB ram on it. GDDR5 4Gb chips are not currently available, and are not on any roadmap I know of.

 

[Arwin]

What if they currently have one 256bit bus to a bank of 2GB GDDR5 that goes to the CPU, and one bank of GDDR5 with one 256bit bus that goes to the GPU? Could they then more easily upgrade the memory?

I'm not saying it's likely, just wondering if it's possible. Besides, didn't the PS3 already have two 128bit busses to the graphics memory, one from GPU to DDR and one to the CPU/XDR? (not completely sure how that worked)

At any rate, consoles do have a history of using very wide busses 'for their time'.

 

[Strange]

Did some research on Newegg and a 7850 with same specs fetch for
1GB $175 and 2GB for $200 in retail.

Another card fetched for $180 vs $190

Could be safe to say that 1GB right now is in the range of about $10~$25 difference?

really need somebody to go fetch the BOM price of EDW2032BBBG (Elpida) or H5GQ2H24MFR (Hynix) to get a better idea.

 

[Ketto]

Really can't compare PS3 and Orbis memory setup. Orbis is unified memory architecture so there's only going to be one memory controller.