Sony boss -- PlayStation 5 will deliver the best possible value proposition

[Shawn Knight]

Forward-looking: Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, in a wide-ranging interview with GamesIndustry.biz confirmed that Sony will be launching the PlayStation 5 globally this holiday season, adding that “it’s going to be a blast.”

There’s been talk that both Sony and Microsoft might delay the launch of their next-gen consoles due to the Covid-19 pandemic but according to the Sony exec, that isn’t happening.

Ryan also appeared to be priming gamers for the realization that Sony’s console may not be the most affordable on the block.

“Recent history has told us that gaming is one of the pastimes, and one of the businesses, that benefits in economically difficult times,” Ryan said. “It's quite logical, people don't have the money to go out so they stay at home.”

The best way Sony can address this, Ryan said, is by providing the best possible value proposition. “I don't necessarily mean lowest price. Value is a combination of many things. In our area it means games, it means number of games, depth of games, breadth of games, quality of games, price of games... all of these things and how they avail themselves of the feature set of the platform.”

At the onset of the pandemic, Ryan said, they realized that they were going to have to spend a lot more time paying attention to the PS4 community than they had anticipated. This involved things like the Play At Home initiative and making sure their network worked under unprecedented demand as people stayed home and dusted off their old PS4 while others bought consoles for the first time to help curb the boredom.

They’ve also got some great games waiting in the wings like The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima.

“We have always felt that we had a responsibility to serve that [PS4] community for several years after the launch of PS5 and that it represented a huge business opportunity for us,” Ryan added.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/85447-sony-boss-playstation-5-deliver-best-possible-value.html

 

[dangh]

Up to 500 is totally fine. 500-600 will surprise me, I do not expect repeat ps3 fail. Nevertheless I got ps3, so I would get ps5. Anything over 600 is no go, would spend money on a new gpu and wait for a ps5 slim or pro.

 

[yRaz]

If the Priceerformance is there I don't think that many people will mind paying a premium. There will of-course be the people that simply can't afford the the extra $$$$, but that will be taken care of in a refresh ~2 years down the line.

I'm a PC/Nintendo guy, but I've been heavily considering picking up a PS5 this round. if its ~$600 that's relatively affordable, but if it's something crazy like $1000 they can go pound salt.

 

[poohbear]

So wait, these people buy a console, keep it for 7 years, and they're fretting over $500 vs $700???? Lol for my PC I spend $200-$300 A YEAR easily! These peeps are complaining about a $200 difference over the span of 7 years?!

...well at least it keeps MS and Sony from jacking up prices...it is a bit annoying that every 2 years Nvida jacks up the prices for their flagship video cards.

 

[amstech]

Up to 500 is totally fine. 500-600 will surprise me,

I mostly agree.
After $500, it starts to ascend into a different category.
That being said, I wouldn't be surprised to see it marked around 550-600.

 

[Reehahs]

I mostly agree.
After $500, it starts to ascend into a different category.
That being said, I wouldn't be surprised to see it marked around 550-600.

When you compare to smart phone prices, consoles are a bargain.

 

[m4a4]

So, what I'm getting from this is that it'll be $500+. And that they're trying hard to convince people that's a good thing.

Next-gen hasn't done much to reassure us that they're worth it so far...

 

[deathspeed]

You all must be rich lol. I can't even CONSIDER a console priced over $300.

 

[DukeJukem]

Just make a console that is backwards compatible with EVERY previous system already. Your sales would skyrocket even if you charged $1,000 USD for one. I wish nostalgia was taken more seriously when it comes to consoles. The PC master race is very fortunate when it comes to being able to play older titles.

 

[OptimumSlinky]

$499. It's not going to be more than that. Sony is just doing PR damage control for people expending the $399 price point that PS4 and PS4 Pro launched at.

 

[texasrattler]

Actually I think people believe that the next consoles would start at $499 not $399. So I would say that its looking as if Sony is expecting to be charging more than $500. Even most sites believe the consoles would be around $499. I dont believe anyone with any common sense thinks the next gen consoles are starting at $399. Its to low of a price point for either MS or Sony. They be more expensive, but how much more is the question. $50-$100. One of these consoles has a chance of being cheaper n I think MS will win the price. Who will win the performance n then games remains to be seen until the consoles come out. Going to be a interesting Christmas.

 

[Buhaj]

I don't really understand people that frown upon a 600 dollars console, but are more than happy to drop 1k for a new smartphone every two years.

 

[bexwhitt]

If the Priceerformance is there I don't think that many people will mind paying a premium. There will of-course be the people that simply can't afford the the extra $$$$, but that will be taken care of in a refresh ~2 years down the line.

I'm a PC/Nintendo guy, but I've been heavily considering picking up a PS5 this round. if its ~$600 that's relatively affordable, but if it's something crazy like $1000 they can go pound salt.

The only performance boost the PS5 has over the new Xbox is the SSD which may make some difference for exclusives but cross platform games you probably could only tell be the crappier controller.

 

[tacobravo]

That price would be justified if we had backwards compatibility

 

[Digitalzone]

I don't really understand people that frown upon a 600 dollars console, but are more than happy to drop 1k for a new smartphone every two years.

Maybe cause you don't show off with your console on the street. It' not such a social class symbol? Also, as the price goes up, the PC option is more on the table.

 

[Privery]

The good thing is that once these consoles come out it will be around December and there could be winter holiday deals for the consoles to sell for less

 

[Prosercunus]

After 500 I am probably waiting for the 1 or 2 revisions of the console at a cheaper or same price before I purchase, given console gaming is secondary to PC gaming for me.

 

[Gaara]

SONY please just TAKE my MONEY and SHUT UP ALREADY!

 

[Ben1978]

I don't really understand people that frown upon a 600 dollars console, but are more than happy to drop 1k for a new smartphone every two years.

Except that 1k is paid in monthly installments usually and most people don't buy a flagship phone.

 

[Ben1978]

You've also gotta remember a large number of buyers will be kids and students for whom $600 is a hell of a lot of money.

 

[Nobodysfool]

Except that 1k is paid in monthly installments usually and most people don't buy a flagship phone.

They don't "buy" flagship phones; they brandish it.

 

[Nobodysfool]

First world problems yet again...

 

[Rig]

A 3700x,
RTX 2080,
Top end PCIe gen 4 NVME SSD.
16GB of GDDR6 (nearly half a TB a second) RAM.
In a genuine itx form factor? That's (roughly) what this is.
If you thought the PS3 launch price was expensive: brace for impact.
You might be thinking you can simply avoid purchasing this console to save money. Tell me, after Sony have already stated they will have first party games run on the PS5 and not the PS4 what do you think the minimum system requirements for a lot of new PC games will be around a year from now? Hint: it's written above.

 

[Mister_K]

A 3700x,
RTX 2080,
Top end PCIe gen 4 NVME SSD.
16GB of GDDR6 (nearly half a TB a second) RAM.
In a genuine itx form factor? That's (roughly) what this is.
If you thought the PS3 launch price was expensive: brace for impact.
You might be thinking you can simply avoid purchasing this console to save money. Tell me, after Sony have already stated they will have first party games run on the PS5 and not the PS4 what do you think the minimum system requirements for a lot of new PC games will be around a year from now? Hint: it's written above.

Are you referring to the specs of a PS5? ???

 

[Rig]

Are you referring to the specs of a PS5? ???

Essentially, yes. I obviously don't expect a RTX 2080 to literally be inside as it will use RDNA2 from AMD but that seems to be the nearest equivalent in terms of GPU horsepower. RTX 2080 has 10.07 TFLOPS whereas the PS5 has 10.28 TFLOP. As this is an undesirable Tflop comparison I rounded down to prevent exaggeration. The 'AMD Zen 2-based CPU with 8 cores at 3.5GHz' the PS5 has is easier - the 3700x is very similar. Sony is really banking on the fact the SSD will be fast enough to be used as a kind of pseudo RAM to improve real world performance.

Whilst this is great for future games its going to sting for a bit as gamers are going to have to pay up either for a new console or PC as a lot of people are still on quad cores (including myself).