PlayStation may be in trouble. The good news for Sony is that Microsoft and the Xbox are in trouble too. As you may know, on the back of price increases, sales of the PS5 and Xbox Series X have hit historic lows. And these price increases are a warning for those looking forward to the PS6 and the next Xbox, which is that you better pay up. If skyrocketing inflation and shipping costs weren’t bad enough, PlayStation is trying to buy RAM in a market where RAM keeps going up and up and up in price, primarily because AI companies are fighting to the death for it in order to erect data centers. The problem is, this problem isn’t going away. In fact, it’s likely to get worse, per new reports. Meanwhile, in the hypothetical where the market for memory stabilizes in the next year or two, which is unlikely to begin with, stabilization is not a reduction. The current conditions are the new normal, and again, it could get worse.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The newest PS6 report comes from a well-known and fairly reliable hardware insider, Kepler2. According to Kepler 2, RAM + NAND alone are set to cost Sony $680 in the manufacturing process of the PS6. For context, it’s estimated these components cost it $100 with the PS5. So, you’re talking about a 6.8x increase, and almost a $600 premium.
The cheapest PS5 right now, the disc-less version, is $600. Even if you were to be conservative and estimate the rest of the PS6 to be the same as the rest of the PS5, which is highly unlikely, that would put the PS6 at roughly $1200. This would be the low end of the estimate. It’s going to have to sell at a considerable loss just to get the sticker down to $1000, a price point itself that will be near impossible to sell in a healthy economy, let alone a shattered economy.
Selling the PS6 at a Loss
PlayStation has no option to sell at a loss. $1000 is bad optically and going to be a disaster to begin with, but the optics of going over that “$999.99” won’t just kill the PS6, but bury it. The last time PlayStation was in an even remotely similar situation was the launch of the $600 PS3, which it sold at a $200 to $300 loss. The PS3 ultimately recovered, and PlayStation found its stride, but the beginning of the PS3 era was dark days for PlayStation and almost sank the brand. This would be even worse. Substantially worse.
Not only does the PS6 look set up to fail, but PlayStation is going into it with zero momentum. PlayStation undoubtedly peaked during the PS4 era, and hasn’t only failed to maintain this, but has declined considerably. Its slate of software has been less impressive, and it’s been entrenched in the PS5 disc controversy.
There’s going to be no one available to capitalize on PlayStation’s ongoing and future troubles, because it all essentially applies to the competition as well. PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo are all in trouble.
More Gaming
-
Image Courtesy of Kwalee -
Image Courtesy of Sony Interactive Entertainment
