Playstation 4 Cost and Pricing Details

PS4 Cost $$$ (PS3 Pricing Autopsy)
PS4 Pricing and CostWay back in 2007, surrounded by controversy and material shortages, the Playstation 3 launched, well, it half launched in some places, didn't launch at all in others, and sold for stupid $2000 price tags on Ebay. After a rocky period and shortages over half the globe, things straightened out and the Playstation 3 sold for around $630/£425, the most expensive home console to be released. The PS3 pretty much blew the Playstation 2 totally out of the water, hosting features and technology that it's little brother couldn't even comprehend when it was released back in 2000. The main reason for Playstation 3's high price tag was the 2x slot-loading Blu-Ray DvD Disc drive, which at the time, put the production cost of the Playstation 3 way up to $800. Some time has passed since then but the cost of a similar Blu-Ray drive can still set you back $400, which is a considerable amount of money to any gamer. One thing that's safe to assume, Sony won't go backwards with the Playstation 4 so we can expect either another Blu-Ray drive, or some improvement on the current one, automatically sky-rocketing the predicted Playstation 4 price to over $500, although there are a number of Blu-Ray drives that you can pick up for next to nothing that offer similar technical capabilities, only time will tell.

Improving the PS4
One of the many complaints from industry experts is the Playstation 3 RAM limits, featuring only 256MB of XDR DRAM as the consoles main memory unit and another 254MB of GDDR3 RAM for the Nvidia RSX, it is undoubtedly one of the main features of the PS3 that's been holding it back. So what can they do with the Playstation 4 to improve on this? The XDR ram itself, although at 256MB sounds to be selling you short, is actually considered to be up to 12x faster than traditional PC RAM, although when compared to current PC technology, this is no longer a solid fact. The RAM is nothing new, the same type of technology was used in the N64, although nowhere near as powerful as current options but 256MB of it can set you back $120/£80, so at current generation prices it can still cost a bit.

Then we move on to the graphical part of the Playstation 3, the Nvidia RSX (the unit that powers the PS3's graphic capabilities), is now 4 years old and there's plenty of other models available on the market although the RSX is still a pretty sweet graphical option as it boasts 300+ trillion transistors, the ram clocks at 700mhz, and can produce 60 million dots per second, more than enough to power any gaming console but nobody wants today's technology in tomorrows console, right? The RSX is the equivalent to the 8800GT used in many computers over recent years but even the 8800GT is obsolete with the other cards available in todays market, the current price of an 8800GT is roughly $280/£180 and considering this card features technology 4 years out of date, you can expect a cost of at least $300/£200 for the Playstation 4's graphical unit.

So to sum up the possible basic cost of the Playstation 4, not including things like blue-tooth devices, or hard-drives, you can expect anything up to $700/£500.

Control Pad Options
When you attempt to price up a future console, you have to take into account as much as possible and based on the current technology, you cannot ignore the control pads. After the leaps in the current generation from Nintendo with the Wii motion sensor and Sony with the 10-bit precision upgrade, from the previous 8, we have to assume that the next generation will take another step forward. The original PS3 controller, Sixaxis, featured 8 pressure sensitive buttons, a pressure sensitive D-Pad and 6 axis, 10-bit precision analog control sticks. This was an obvious improvement on the PS2's 8-bit precision model but the Sixaxis was discontinued in 2008 after the release of Dualshock 3. A large reason behind the Sixaxis controller being dumped was the fact that it couldn't handle any vibration features as it interfered with the motion control inside the pad, the Dualshock 3 was the next step in technology that allowed game developers to combine both vibration and motion sensitive technology. However, this came at a hefty price as the Dualshock 3 controller was priced at $59.99/£39.99 which is about the same cost for today's newest console titles. Time passed and the controller eventually dropped in price, selling in today's market for about $35/£20 but it has taken almost 4 years to get that low. So what can we expect from the next generation of control pads?
In all honesty, your guess is as good as mine. There is no official information on whether the next generation Playstation 4 pads will incorporate motion technology similar to the Playstation Move, whether they'll stick with the current design and features or whether they'll go for something totally new but it's safe to expect a hefty price tag with whatever they choose. Based on the fact that the Dualshock 3 control pads are still selling at $30, you can at least expect the next generation to be the same, if not more expensive, than the original price of the Dualshock 3.
Dualshock 4 Cost - $60-80/£40-60

The Cost of the New Playstation 4 - Can you afford it?
Although this is all speculation and guesswork, one thing most will agree on, the cost of a Playstation 4 will hit your wallet and hit it hard. Everything in the next generation takes a step up, from the technology to the price and considering the original price of the Playstation 3 was over $600, you can only expect the same, if not more for the next generation. Nobody knows for certain but we're putting our money on a minimum $700 price tag, of course we'll know more once they release some technical information but until then, all there is to do is speculate. So what do you think? Would you pay $700 for a brand new Playstation 4? Or will you hold out a few years until the inevitable price drop takes effect?

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Comments

ma se poes

julle lieg net sony kan se wanne die fokken ding uit kom man julle poeste

my broe

poes kak ek kan nie glo ps4 ko november uit tie

Hi

If the ps4 is to much money then there sales won't be as good as Xbox parents of kids are don't going to pay over priced items. You could see alot sales on the true ps fan. So Sony needs to keep the price right to stay in the market for those big sales.

mental

im just going 2 wait until they make a slimline version which is inevitable and buy that for half the price of the original

Dots

No one uses "dots" to determine GPU power, and those that do are Marketing Executives looking for large numbers before they open their mouths to cover up the smaller numbers it really has.

The RSX is a fraction of the power of a 8800GT.

The author of this article sounds like one of those Marketing Executives Sony has in 2005 -- "Dispicable Shit Heads".

Gaming Industry

TThe one thing that everyone is forgetting is how big the game industry is, and how big it is going to become during 2015-17.

It's going to be an industry that will tower over anything not involving Ship Building.

Sony know this and I damn sure Microsoft are as well and the next generation gaming systems are at the same time going to mirror what they are now, and then reflect directly off of what the PC industry has been doing, only on a much bigger scale.

x86 technology is hitting the limits, that's why Core i7 [Nehalem] just hasn't been beaten. That's why when you push a CPU to 8Ghz, no one is paying any attention other than the amount of liquid nitrogen you have to carry around to achieve it and the results are disappointing. Overclocking the AMD or Intel CPU from 3.3Ghz to 4.5Ghz does virtually nothing to gaming other than to support SLI/Crossfire configurations by single digit percentage gains.

The use of silicon technology in computation has to change. The Architecture has to change.
That's why the PC as a gaming system will fade out.

I noticed in this thread a mention of XDR2 being comparable to GDDR3/5; well the one big thing they missed is that XDR2 scales by the number of modules you put together - like the Cell; as I understand it 4x512Mbx4Modules (2Gb XDR2) is capable of 500Gb/sec of memory bandwidth and we're talking lightning fast memory here - far beyond GDDR5 with the tighest timings you can possibly achieve.

If you connect the Cell2 to that, and if nVidia connects the RSX2 to that, goodbye PC gaming industry. The whole thing would be turned upside down for the first time in decades - consoles destroy PC gaming rigs permanently for at least another 10 years if the adopt their strategy of churning out old ideas by upping overclocked frequencies.

The reason there is no uptake of XDR2 is the same reason x86 has lasted this long.
It takes one basic move and the whole thing changes.

rstaj7

How do to make a page if u don't know the product.. this is soooo bulshit

PS4

THIS SITE IS B@LLSH#T SONY SAID PS3 WILL LAST FOR 10 YEARS THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL SONY SITE . PS4 WILL ANNOUNCED A YEAR BEFORE IT RELEASED....WILL ANNOUNCED BY SONY... NOT FROM PS4PLAYSTATION4.COM SITE ( WHICH SONY CAN CLOSE IT BUT THEY DONT CARE BECAUSE ALL THIS IS B@LLSH#T AND EVEN A MAN WITH 30 IQ WILL BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND IT)

PS4

then why are you on

How can Sony close this

How can Sony close this website? For speculation? Sony will release the PS4 when Xbox release the 720, and start hogging the console sales.

This was a well written article. It's not claiming to know anything as fact, as it says, it's just looking at past evidence of what Sony have done, and what they have charged.

Lastly, does swearing make you feel big? Idiot.

When do it hit stores

When do it hit stores

price

i wonder how much it ganna cost i thing somewhere about 1000 or

price

well i paid $1000 for ps3 when it first came out so i recon 1500-2000

ps4 price

I would hold out till it's cheaper.. think it's going to be a interesting next generation console war. PS4 will be out first this time and by the time the xbox 720 comes out the ps4 should be lower in price.

You goto remember that 256mb (total of 512mb w/vid memory) of ram expecially XDR is pleanty.. even for the road ahead I would think. You goto remeber the resources of your ps3 is deticated to the game.

An exsample:

PS2 was 299 MHz and 32MB RDRAM dosent seem like it should be able to run anything. Look at games like san andreas can run off that hardware hard to belive. Try to run GTA:SA on a PII 300 w/32mb ram.

you loser!!!

this means your not a true gamer in what you said inside your comment

but they said...

i thought they said that they were gonna release it for less than when the PS3 came out...

me to

me to

ps4

i jest hope the ps4 will be better than the xbox 720 cause the ps3 was better than the xbox 360 cause ps3 used blue ray disk and it lasted alot longer than my xbox 360 so i would take my time with the ps4 and know for a fact its better than xbox 720 before it is shipted out but i beleve they should keep the ps3 controlers jest make them look cooler like put grips on them and make the system with a 3 disk changer

You made some errors in your article.

Please let me correct you.

" featuring only 256MB of XDR DRAM as the consoles main memory unit and another 254MB of GDDR3 RAM for the Nvidia RSX,"

Typo its 256 MB GDDR 3 Ram not 254 MB.

"The XDR ram itself, although at 256MB sounds to be selling you short, is actually considered to be up to 12x faster than traditional PC RAM"

True for DDR/DDR2. But speed is not the only important thing. Did you know that the GDDR3 Ram of the RSX (and the Xbox 360) is as fast as XDR. You might ask why and its understandable. I also thought XDR is a lot superior to GDDR3/X360 but thats not true. Even though it has 4-5 times higher clock rate (3200 Mhz vs 700 Mhz) It has just 64 Bit bandwith wereas GDDR 3 like the 256 MB for RSX and the 512 MB for 360 have 256 Bit Bandwith. The difference is that GDDR3 can transport 4 times more data per cycle. That means GDDR3 needs only 1 Mhz to transport the same amount of data in the same time as 4 mhz XDR so the GDDR3 is like 2800mhz XDR . In reality XDR is just 12.5% faster then GDDR3.

Also XDR is not produced anymore only for PS3. 2gb XDR2 are a couple of bucks today. 8gb DDR3 (as faster or faster as XDR2) are 40 Dollar.

"the Nvidia RSX (the unit that powers the PS3's graphic capabilities), is now 4 years old and there's plenty of other models available on the market"

The PS3 is soon 5 years old so the RSX is also almost 5 years atleast. But the RSX is older than thatunlike from you suspected " The RSX is the equivalent to the 8800GT"

Its actually based on the predecessor GPU the 7800GT and the 7800GT came in 2005 and is over 6 years old. With a 8800GT the PS3 would literally rape the dead corpse of the 360 in terms of power the 8800 GT is a legendary GPU.

"RSX is still a pretty sweet graphical option as it boasts 300+ trillion transistors, the ram clocks at 700mhz, and can produce 60 million dots per second,"

The RSX is not really a sweet graphical option anymore its still decent and as strong as the slowest GPUs from today. And that is! good. In the Past the console GPUs where obsolete after 3 years.

It also boasts 300 MILLION Transistors (typo) GTX 580 has 3000 Million+ and soon comes GTX 680 and HD 7xxxx series with a lot more than that. Ram clocks at 700mhz but maybe you should add the 256 Bit Bandwith too. Old DDR had 64 Bit

"the current price of an 8800GT is roughly $280/£180 "

No way a GTX 480 is that price (less even) a 8800GT is 100 Dollar NEW. A 7800GT is 50.

"So to sum up the possible basic cost of the Playstation 4, not including things like blue-tooth devices, or hard-drives, you can expect anything up to $700/£500."

Sorry to disagree with you you should really look how much stuff costs in production. A 1000 Dollar Ipad has parts for 300 Dollar. Bluetooth costs 1-2 Dollar maybe less. A 500 gb HDD costs maybe 10! Dollar in production. PS3 had a super advanced BR Drive and a super advanced CPU that made 50% of the real cost= 400 Dollar. Today they are maybe 100.

A DS3 costs about 5 Dollar to produce. You have to forget that the prices you pay are somehow connected to the prices the stuff actually costs.

The costs are profit margin of developer first reseller second reseller transport advertisment storage costs taxes. And consoles are the only product I know of where the developer even takes a losess thats why the Specs of consoles are cutting edge and for the price not available anywhere else. I KNOW that Sony is not going to sell a ps4 for 700 Dollar because the PS3 for 600 was a failure at launch. If they realesed for 399 without BR the 360 would be dead (and Bluray would have lost against HDDVD). They have No need to push another Format right now the PS4 will have conventional technology and be between 400-500 Dollar because it wont have to push exotic and expensive technology.

Wha---?

If this is a good guess, I'm not getting a PS4 until 2 or 3 years after release.
I would pay 500 dollars no more.

The Sony Japan Vice President

The Sony Japan Vice President basically said in an interview that the ps4 probably won't be as expensive as the ps3 was at launch, so I'm guessing the ps4 will be $400-$500.

Lol whot?

this is bad guess, what bout harddrive? what about HD wires and cables? and u hav launch packages to remeber no new console sells with no games when brand new

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