Overnight, Bloomberg has shared a report which could give us some insight into Sony's plans for the launch of PlayStation 5. Of course, none of this is confirmed nor official, but the website goes into great detail about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the hardware manufacturer's reveal plans and what that means for its release.
According to the report, the Japanese giant will produce far fewer PS5 units for launch compared to the total it had for the PlayStation 4's November 2013 release. This is because the console is expected to come in at a high price, around $499 to $549. That cost is dangerously close to Sony's infamous $599 moment for the PlayStation 3, but the specs that the next-gen console is sporting necessitates it. "The Tokyo-based tech giant is limiting its initial production run in part because it expects the PS5’s ambitious specs to weigh on demand by leading to a high price at launch."
Elsewhere, COVID-19 is having a dramatic impact on how Sony reveals the console. The PS5 DualSense controller's reveal is said to have been rushed, done via a PlayStation Blog post because the design and features had been shared with parties outside of the company. The PS5 console itself isn't in that same position, however. Bloomberg also speculates that Sony may skip hosting a public press conference to reveal the release date and price of the machine due to the coronavirus.
Lastly, the website states that Sony is unlikely to delay the PS5 out of its holiday 2020 launch window, especially so if Microsoft sticks to the same target with its Xbox Series X. Again, none of this information is confirmed to be true, but coming from a place such as Bloomberg, we can put a fair bit of trust into this report. As such, how do you react to all this? It looks like you'll need to be hammering that pre-order button on Amazon as soon as the option becomes available if you want to guarantee yourself a PS5 this year. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source bloomberg.com]
Comments 79
'The Tokyo-based tech giant ' take notes PushSquare 😃
By the always reliable Takashi Mochizuki still referring to 'the people said' as a source and the famous Thong who correctly predicted there would be a ps4 slim and that the PS5 would be launched in 2018. /S
It may be expensive but that is a fair and expected price.
I just hope all regions get the same amount of units instead of the US getting the most. Would not even suprise me tbh.
You know, for a so called rushed reveal of the dualsense. It is considered quite successful as even now I have seen people still talking about the controller lol 😂
@JoeBlogs For me I always buy the second or third batch. Been doing this since the ps2 haha.
@Leon_93 I'm 99% certain that's due to PushSquare's coverage
@jdv95 One thing that they forgot to mentioned is that it is also reported that the PS5 will launched simultaneously across the world compare to ps4 so I'm pretty sure each region will have a fair amount.
Given the times were living its a very sensable aproach by Sony.
No problem. I will dedicate myself to clean up my huge backlog till I will understand what is the next gen console to go!
I think, given the state of the world at the moment, we should absolutely expect the unexpected out of Sony and other companies. This console launch will be unlike any other.
@Leon_93
Yes it wasnt 'rushed' at all.
The article is mainly speculating. Controllers were sent to devs and therefore more risk for leaks.
Nothing 'rushed' about it.
I don't think Sony will price higher than the Bloomberg projected $499. They've always made it known that they're willing to lose on initial sales in the short run and gain in the long run.
I do wonder if a higher price will be less of an issue this time. People seem genuinely excited by the tech in these boxes. The big problem for Sony is that its harder to convey the difference that their SSD brings. Too many are just going to point to raw numbers and assume xbox is better.
As for the cost, no way in hell im paying that. But i didnt pay 400 for a PS4 either. I'll be waiting until at least a year after launch for some price reductions
I bought my PS2 2 years after launch, PS3 2.5 years after launch and PS4 5 years after launch.
I think I’ll be waiting quite a while. Price will have dropped by then.
Anything beyond 400$-450$ would be too much.
I will hopefully be picking this up on launch day if I can get one! It will be the console I've ever had on launch day!
@Rob_230
Actually I think SSD advantage should be easier to show off than a couple more TFlops.
That doesn't make a lot of sense. What if demand is way higher than expectation? Microsoft will be happy to make up the difference. Backward compatibility will drive early adaption and demand may be much higher than previous gens. Holding on to production wouldn't benefit Sony much since any excess will eventually be sold next year. You can always cut production later.
I'll be doing all I can to get a PS5 at launch. Hopefully it will be a better experience than with PS4, where I took the day off to wait for the delivery only to receive one of the bricked consoles, which I had to send back and wait for another one to arrive a few days later.
@Rob_230 I think things will become much clearer when they decide to show off their new tech. Just be patient. The machine will be killer.
This is exactly what I was expecting. Sony won't delay the launch unless MS do. Stock will be low.
The price point is higher than expected however, especially since MS will be trying to undercut them and reverse the roles they had when the XB1 launched. More powerful and cheaper would certainly increase sales.
@jdv95 It will depend on the demand and sales data, probably they will focus first on US and the Europe /Uk , last will probably Japan, Asia and Australia.
If the price is in that range then I will be pre-ordering. Hopefully the shops will have reopened by then as I always prefer to pick my consoles up from the shop not waiting in for a delivery.
Ironically I never bought a PS4 at launch but a few short months later and the reason was to keep me entertained and in good spirits whilst I spent a few months stuck at home recovering from an organ transplant.The way it's going I'll be hoping to buy a PS5 at launch because I'll most likely still be stuck at home hiding away from from a deadly virus that will most likely finish me off because of my transplant putting me at 'high risk'..only this time it will be interesting to see if I have a job to go back to.
I tend to wait a while after launch before getting a console anyway. If that cost estimate is true then I'll probably do that again.
@billyboyblue666 oh i agree. Sony have never let me down. Console will be great. I just cant wait for the end of all the rumours. Not because im impatient, but it feels like they've run forever. My cousins, brothers, sister works at Sony and you'll never guess what she heard...yawn....
Let's just wait and see what Sony have developed. No doibt it will provide countless hours of entertainment
My body (and credit card) is ready
The moment I can preorder from my local store I will preorder regardless of price rather be in queue then miss out on buying one.
That price is high!
xbox sx will have a very attractive price tag and “interesting” exclusive game at launch, but it is a short run...
I bought an N64 and a Wii at launch. I prefer the wait nowadays. I'll waiting for the PS5 slim and pray that Gran turismo 7 is a PS4 title.
All of this is very interesting, but I'll stick to my approach for the past generations: wait between a year or two to get it, specially since there's no way to predict how badly the economy will tank and how this will affect my income.
Nothing unexpected really. Can't wait to finally preorder a couple of them!
I've just managed to get a pre order at shop to.
@Leon_93 this site perchance? 🤔😂
PS4 Pro RRP is still £349. I'm not shocked at the price to be honest. My expectation for the PS5 is still between £450 and £499.
Side note: The $599 price point of the launch PS3 taking inflation into account would be $769 today.
Really impressed by this Bloomberg guy, a couple of months ago he was running for president and now he is a Playstation expert. Talk about priorities in life!
I wasn't going to get it at launch anyway. I made the same mistake with PS4, and I didn't have an amazing game to play until Bloodborne.
That is probably about the price I'm expecting to be honest. I dont think the SeX will be much higher. I've read some mention (not from here) that Microsoft's console is 'significantly' or 'vastly' more powerful, which I find is stretching it a bit.
This article makes it sound like they wont have many at all, but the original article says:
"The company has told assembly partners it would make 5 to 6 million units of the PS5 in the fiscal year ending March 2021, according to other people involved in the machine’s supply chain. When Sony released the PlayStation 4 in November 2013, it sold 7.5 million units in its first two quarters."
1,5 million less is what, like 20% difference at most, but with Covid situation affecting everyone and all the highend components in the PS5 it sounds great with up to 6 million sold in a few months tbh.
well i'm pretty sure i'll have the money saved by its release date but given that it might have limited demand AND because i have a huge backlog i might wait a little before getting a PS5
i am absolutely getting one though
The PS3 launch price is more like £625 in todays money too. So I don't think £400-450 is particularly unrealistic.
I've never bought a console at launch, so if I still have a job by November (seems likely, but nothing is a sure thing right now), I'm definitely going to treat myself.
Sony have done some decent stuff last few weeks ($10m indie fund, $100m Covid fund) too.
With ghost of tsushima coming out this summer i am going to put a better fan + thermal paste and thermal pads inside my ps4 pro to make it last as there is normally a shortage of consoles on launch and some issues and the 2nd batch is better.
It would be nice to get a ps5 on launch but with a global pandemic and the world going crackers i don't expect enough but it is sony so don't be surprised if there is enough for everyone.
@Zeke68
And that is 'according to 'other people'.
Later he says 'The PS5 production volume could still change depending on the Covid-19 situation, the people said.'
That guy is always making up stuff from a lot of difference 'sources' and recycled old news.
Funny all the sites always reporting many articles based on what is essentially full of fluff
I could see myself spending €500.00 on it. I was expecting €450.00 - €500.00 anyway based on what we've been hearing.
No way I'm paying that for a video game. I wish I was in a financial position where spending this much on a hobby was fine...
Had my preorder in place for a couple of months now, just to make sure I am at the front of the queue, even at £550 it's a worthwhile expense given the amount of use it will see.
At $549 still a fraction the price of my 2k/Raytracing Gaming PC.
And you can sell, trade, buy used or rent your games on consoles for extra savings.
I'll pre-order mine as soon as I can. if it last as long as my PS4... that is $78 a year. Still an amazing value.
@LN78 In the US?
PS4 at 1.84 teraflops, you'll need around 5.59 PS4s to meet the PS5. Looking at the PS4 Pro at 4.2 teraflops, it only takes 2.45 consoles to match the PlayStation 5. That along with the worlds fastest SSD and a 4K blue-ray Player makes the PS5 worth much more than the $399 price of the PS4 or PS4Pro at launch.
This smells fishy to me. I will believe it when I see It.
I cannot imagine Sony doing this. With the success of the PS4 - even if they have to take a loss - they will.
I've been expecting 500 dollars from the start so give me a release date and let me pre-order. I will absolutely get it this year if it comes out.
As long as they deliver, just mail it to my house
All of this talk about price. I don’t think it’ll be a big deal once the system drops. It’s not 2006. I don’t think a higher price launch price (than the PS4) will effect the sales of the PS5. Especially with all of this talk about graphics and features. I also don’t think Sony needs a big production in front of an audience in order to announce the rest of the PS5 info. It’s more exciting, but not necessary. The controller reveal, alone, trended #1 and had over 5 million views in a day. Not to mention the memes that were going around social media. More publicity. Well produced videos, clearly showing what the PS5 can do is enough in 2020. As far as the economy goes, people find money for what they want (look at the Switch and Ring Fit craze). Yes, those items aren’t as expensive as what the PS5 will be, but $300 or $500. It’s still a lot of money, especially given what’s going on. They won’t have problems selling systems, especially coming off the PS4 era.
"That cost is dangerously close to Sony's infamous $599 moment"
This is the problem with people ignoring inflation. $599 in 2006 is the same as $767 in 2020. The PS3 was way more expensive than the PS5 will be even if it was also $599.
For the record, if the PS5 is $549, that's like a console being $428 in 2006.
i can't see it being more than $449USD/$600CAD. $600USD equates to $849CAD for us in canada and that would not work, i can promise you that! the launch would be a disaster. also, when you take into consideration sony is likely planning on relesing its games on pc and will lose psn subscribers as a result, sony would be shooting itself in the foot with such a ludicrous price point.
what needs to happen here is sony will take a loss on the hardware for two years while it attempts to grow its subscription numbers. subscriptions will offset the losses in hardware and by year 2 or 3 (when cheaper components can be used) sony will turn a healthy profit. if sony takes the more expensive approach to the price of hardware, they will stagnate their subscriptions and fudge their sofware sales due to a low ps5 userbase. the greedy route will backfire.
@Agramonte
This! A year ago I bought a low-mid tier MSI gaming laptop with GTX1060 6GB and paid around $1000 for it. For me the problem is that in Poland (where I live) the rumoured price of PS5 is going to be around $800-850. If it turns out to be true I'll wait a year or two before buying one.
@Porco people said no one will ever pay £1000 for a phone when Apple announced their pricing... low and behold people did. Then they said no one will pay £1500 for a phone and again people proved them wrong. People will pay the money if they want something enough. And I think the price that's being touted is Sony making a loss. All that tech doesn't come cheap.
@Eldritch but we have learned from history that such a price does not work in the console space. the phone market is vastly different since a phone is something almost everyone in the developed world has on them at all times. a console is not a necessity like a phone is so the laws on demand will be vastly different. people are not going to be excited to pay $600USD for a optional entertainment item.
A phone may be a necessity but an expensive phone isn't and people still bought the expensive ones in the millions. Obviously the iPhone's sales figures are nowhere near the PlayStation 4's, but then a lot of these people buy a new one every year, that's one hell of an expenditure, so again people are willing to spend huge amounts on non essential entertainment items. The other thing is, with consoles in the past, they've always been behind the times. By the time they are released the tech has been old. That's not the case this time. So I think that'll impact price and potential buyers too. Either way, whatever the price, just be grateful you're not in the UK. We always get stiffed. If it's $500 dollars we'll pay £500 even if the exchange rate means we should only be paying just over £400.
Take out the $200 SSD and you would have a $399 console.
I don’t buy that price and will await for the official one to be announced. These sites including Bloomberg have got things wrong before...
@Bioth Haha. Nice one
@jdv95 North America is their main focus and where World Wide Studios is headquartered. That's just how it is. Regardless, nothing is confirmed to be true, so I don't think anyone should be concerned about it until Sony comments on said rumors.
@Matroska the problem is most consumers do not possess the level of financial literacy necessary to remember, let alone consider something like inflation in comparing the price of the PS3 at launch and a potential PS5 launch at around the same price point. This is true in the US at least, I can't speak for other markets/countries.
Still, you make a very good point, and I would add that trends regarding how much people are accustomed to spending on new tech/gadgets have changed tremendously since the PS3 launched. For example, I don't want to say I get just as much usage out of my PS4 Pro as I do my iPhone, but the time spent on both is comparable, if not slightly in favor of my PS4 Pro. And I will feel a lot better spending $599 on a PS5 than whatever I am going to have to spend purchasing a 5G ready iPhone.
@gollumb82 wow. that is expensive 😕😳
Yeah, I would not pay $800 either. Still need to get games on top of that. I use my PC for work also - so can justify a bit more.
@LN78 Oh, that is extensive. Still waiting for some in the US.
But i need it to be Amazon. Have tons of reward points I am using for it.
@Eldritch we'll see i guess. i live in canada and our dollar is absolute trash right now compared to the US dollar. i'm not going to spend $850CAD on a ps5 if your prediction comes true.
I always expected a 499 USD price. And I'm not going to buy it at launch, so... whatever.
I have money but £600 for a console?
It's too much considering the world economy is shrinking by the day.
Last gen I waited for the first bundle offer to appear (TLOU remaster and Watchdogs packed in) and jumped on it. If the console is £600 there would really need to be some games packed in otherwise it will cost over £700 for a console, game and spare pad (which will be £60-£70). That's too high in my opinion regardless of the tech.
Good lord that same article says it costs around 450 to make. Should Sony put a 100 bill in the box also? Sony isn't Microsoft they can't afford to throw money away to say they have the bigger penis out the door. I switched to Microsoft when they first came out because they were US based. Then I watched as they took all the companies they bought cannibalized them.Stopped making first party stuff unless it was the big 3 Halo,Fable,and Forza(then along came Cliffy B's game).So I went back to the real video game people. This here the start of this smells like the coming of Xbox they bought developers (who may or may not make it through the console generation), they sound as if they are willing to take a loss on the console, and just as you feel good history will repeat itself I hope not but it sure feels like it. Lastly for all those saying they are willing to drop 400 or 450 on a XseX you do remember for the first year to two there will be no exclusive games. The games made will still play on the XboxX. I'm thinking of upgrading my S to an X incase one of those new games catches my eye
@Porco
This is exactly it. ALL OF IT.
So much for getting the PS4 userbase over to PS5 quickly. The current Sony is not the one that did so well from 2013 to the middle of 2018 when ridiculous decisions started getting made.
When everyone see Xbox series X price they will be happy with the Price of the less expensive PS5! Yet Microsoft will try to justify it by saying they are already taking a loss at its higher price.
A state of play to reveal the basics then some press releases for a massive blow out?
There's nothing yet from the PS5 that will be an outstanding feat enough for myself to justify buying a £400 (or thereabouts) console from day one, so the limited supply doesn't feel like it'll affect me all that much. This might be the first console where I give it maybe six months to a year to see how the game library expands first.
Until then, I don't see much reason to abandon the PS4 or Xbox One, especially considering they'll likely still be supported even a year or two after the release (or start?) of the ninth generation.
@Eldritch Irrespective, if Sony keep ratcheting up the price of consoles, people are just going to turn to PC which is cheaper and far more future-proofed (not to mention that it naturally has an incredibly broad range of games and an unspoken "backwards compatability").
Granted the PS5 technology is impressive, but I can guarantee that they will be shooting themselves in the foot if they don't diligently consider the balance between cost and power.
@Mythologue but they're not cheaper. That's just a myth. It's amazing, every PC user will tell you how great their PCs are and how they're far better than consoles, yet strangely if you look at the statistics of PC users on Steam who actually own PCs that are able to run all these games at full whack the numbers are around 1% of the PC user base. That's 99% talking rubbish. And why? Because to get those PCs that run all the stuff is darned expensive. Also I think people are generally either console players or PC players. There may be a few that don't care which way they lean but most do. So I don't agree many will leave to suddenly become PC gamers. I have an exceedingly fast computer that I use for my work at home but the thought of playing games on it fills me with dread. I'm far happier sat in my big comfy chair, with my big TV and surround sound system. If it means I'd have to save a little longer for the PS5 so be it. And I don't think I'm alone. But time will tell I guess.
This is worse rumour that I ever read. STUPID NEWS, push square!
I don’t see a single statement from Sony or even peaks that the price will go up.
SIGHING!!!
@Rob_230 Yeah, I completely agree. I'm sick of somebody making another YouTube video about the latest whisper on some Mongolian forum about the machine(s).
Let's see the games!! 🙏🙏😁🎮
Tap here to load 79 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...