PS6 Price

There's a now rapidly growing belief that next-gen consoles, including the PS6, will cost an absolute fortune.

This sentiment gained serious traction when Sony itself jacked up the price of its PS5 models back in April — an unprecedented move so late in a system's life.

But it's really the official pricing announcement of Valve's Steam Machine that's got people losing their minds — and rightly so.

The custom-built platform's various price tags border on extortionate for many, breaking the $1,000 mark that would make any gaming machine look ridiculously expensive at a glance.

Will the PS6 follow suit, though? Are we facing a new reality where four-figure sums are attached to consoles?

Well, it's certainly looking that way, according to several reputable industry analysts.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, these analysts offered their own takes on the aforementioned Steam Machine, and whether it signals a similar shift from platform holders like Sony and Microsoft.

The responses are pretty brutal. In particular, Joost van Dreunen, CEO of analytics firm Aldora, reckons any figure above the dreaded $1,000 mark "is the floor".

"At this rate, the next generation may not even release until 2028, and when it does, north of a grand is the floor. Even existing devices are getting marked up," he predicts.

Van Dreunen goes on to explain that component manufacturers such as Samsung are now in a "post-consumer" phase. In other words, your everyday buyer is no longer the priority — the new goal is to just rocket the price of products because historical demands can't be met.

Fortunately, Ampere Analysis' Piers Harding-Rolls isn't quite so convinced that console makers will succumb to crazy price tags.

He argues that Valve's situation is unlike that of Sony's; the former is generally okay with shipping a niche device, while the latter knows that it has to appeal to a mass market. In short, the expectations are much different.

"Sony has more scale than Valve and is better positioned in terms of supply chain accessibility through its entrenched relationships and broader electronics business," he states.

Still, Harding-Rolls does expect prices to increase, regardless of the "levers" that companies like Sony can utilise. He also suggests that the launch of next-gen consoles is "most likely to be at the end of 2028" because of "market disruption and other factors".

Meanwhile, Circana's ever-informative Mat Piscatella warns that console costs will "possibly, even likely" surpass $1,000, purely because of the chaos that surrounds the industry and the wider world right now.

"The future here is beyond cloudy," he concludes. It's not looking good, folks.

And lastly, Newzoo's Manu Rosier thinks Sony understands the value of keeping its console prices as low as possible — and so while the PS6 won't be cheap by any stretch of the imagination, the "next-generation models are likely to hold under $999 for psychological and marketing reasons".

Rosier also mentions the potential of platform holders moving towards cheaper game streaming devices, but I'm not sure anyone wants to hear that argument right now!

The bottom line here, then, is that the industry's cooked. Even if the PS6 was delayed by a year or two, none of these analysts can see the component crisis going away, and so prices are going to jump regardless.

How much would you pay for a PS6? Just stick with your PS5 in the comments section below.

[source gamesindustry.biz]