Unfortunately, what we saw with the Steam Machine may be only the beginning of a devastating price tsunami…
Three months ago, Kepler_L2, a well-known AMD leaker, claimed that the bill of materials for Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 6 could be around $760. That raised the possibility that the console could launch for $700, even with Sony initially subsidizing part of the cost. A few days later, Moore’s Law Is Dead mentioned a very similar bill of materials of $743.
However, the component shortage appears to worsen almost every week. Valve was forced to launch the Steam Machine at $1,049, roughly $300 more than its originally planned price, while Microsoft had to raise the price of the Xbox Series consoles once again.
Amid this complicated economic situation, Kepler_L2 brought more bad news to the NeoGAF forum. According to the leaker, the cost of the PlayStation 6 bill of materials has since risen by around $200, bringing it very close to the psychological $1,000 threshold. Kepler_L2 believes that delaying the console would still not be logical for Sony. If RAM and storage prices continue to rise, there would be little point in postponing the launch, while stabilizing prices would not make a delay any more sensible either.
At the moment, a $1,000 digital-only PlayStation 6 could be the best-case scenario for consumers. Kepler_L2 also believes that the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 may need another price increase soon. The leaker further stated that an OLED version of the PlayStation Portal is expected to arrive later this year.
No major home console has ever launched for $1,000 or more. Sony came closest with the PlayStation 3’s notoriously painful $599 debut in 2006, which directly contributed to that generation’s weak start. Adjusted for inflation, however, the Neo Geo’s $650 price in 1990 would be worth roughly $1,656 today.
A $999 PlayStation 6 would completely shatter that historical ceiling, even in Kepler_L2’s best-case estimate. Microsoft will naturally face the same issues with Project Helix. The real question is whether cutting-edge games will become a hobby reserved for the wealthy as hardware and software costs rise, potentially causing the market to shrink for the first time in many years.
Source: WCCFTech, NeoGAF, NeoGAF
