Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

PS5 and Xbox Series X parts could push prices to $500 each

Gabe Gurwin
By
The Moment Sony Won E3 2013 - Sony Conference - Eurogamer

Start saving cash for this holiday season. Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X reportedly cost their manufacturers $450 or more to make, making a $500 price tag likely for the upcoming consoles.

The PS5’s production cost is roughly $450 per unit, according to Bloomberg, with the supply of DRAM and NAND flash memory largely to blame for their high demand in other products. Bloomberg also said Sony already removed features from its new PS5 camera because of this issue, and this could play a role in why Sony hasn’t decided on a final price for the system. Sony suggested it’s waiting to see how the Xbox Series X is priced before it makes a decision.

Related Videos

If accurate, this production cost means the PS5 will likely sell for $500 at launch. The Xbox Series X appears to have a similar cost, according to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad. Ahmad estimated Microsoft’s system costs between $460 and $520 to produce, meaning Microsoft could have an even smaller profit margin if it prices the Series X at $500. In fact, it could have no profit margin at all.

Related

Also I want to clarify one point from the original tweet. I’m not saying that XSX build cost is $460.

I estimated that the build cost would be in the $460 minimum to $520 maximum range based on current component costs.

To simplify it, higher than the PS5 build cost somewhat.

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 14, 2020

Loss-leading — selling a new product below its production cost in order to generate interest — is common among past game consoles, and Sony and Microsoft will want to keep their systems competitive with each other. In the current generation, Microsoft priced the Xbox One at $500 because it bundled every system with Kinect, while Sony didn’t include the PlayStation Camera and kept the price at $400. That gave the PlayStation 4 an early lead that it never lost, dominating the Xbox in sales.

It was a lesson learned from the previous generation when Sony set the PS3 at $499 and $599 after the Xbox 360 already released a year earlier. The PS3 would ultimately take several years before it was able to overtake lifetime sales of the Xbox 360.

While $500 would be expensive for the two new consoles, both are packing a great deal of power into the hardware. On top of 8K resolution, both systems will support ray tracing, a feature currently limited to powerful PCs. They’ll also be backward compatible, so players can sell or trade in their old console to make dropping half a grand on a new game system a little easier on the wallet.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
The Finals is the shake-up the competitive first-person shooter scene needs
A player stands up against a wall in a The Finals screenshot.

While I enjoy playing first-person shooters occasionally, it's a genre I've struggled to become a hardcore fan of. To me, it has stagnated, with recent Call of Duty and Battlefield games feeling like little more than rehashes of the same quick-kill-focused gameplay on maps that all blend together after a while. That's why The Finals' longer time-to-kill, unique match objectives, and focus on level destruction all feel like a breath of fresh air.
THE FINALS Closed Beta Trailer
Developed by Embark Studios, the new multiplayer shooter is a notable change of pace for a stagnating genre. Because it takes a lot of effort to defeat an opponent, and the map is continuously changing as you do so, no two matches feel quite the same. I can attest to that, as I recently went hands-on with it and had that exact experience. Lots of thrilling, emergent moments organically happened during each match, leading to some of the most memorable matches I've had playing a first-person shooter in years.
If you've always enjoyed destructible environments in your FPS games and enjoy inventive competitive shooters that aren't just trying to chase what is popular, then you'll want to check out The Finals.
Map mayhem
The Finals' primary mode, Extraction, is framed as a game show where four teams compete to earn the most money during a match. Players do this by locating vaults on a map, obtaining cash boxes, and delivering them to a cash-out station. Extra money is rewarded for kills and a team's total is halved if they are completely wiped. The basics of the FPS gameplay are approachable enough for anyone who has played a game in this genre before. That said, its longer time-to-kill also helps that mission and gives players time to appreciate just how reactive its world is.
In the Closed Beta preview build, I played on two maps based on Monaco and Seoul. Each contains points of interest connected by some indoor arenas and long outdoor corridors that you'd come to expect from an FPS map. But it only stays that way for a short time. As soon as explosives get involved, the map transforms as buildings crumble and the environment reacts to the players. It stays that way too, as developer Embark Studios' server-side technology tracks and accommodates any changes to the map.
Last year, the developers at Embark Studios told Digital Trends that they hope this technology would make other developers panic. While we don't think The Finals will go that far, it certainly handles destruction better than other games that have tried to boast similar strengths, like Crackdown 3 or Battlefield 2042. It's not only a neat technical feat, but it also opens up many organic situations you don't get in other FPS games.

For example, a building was crumbling as I retrieved a cash box and headed to a cash-out station. I was under fire, and an opponent's rocket completely destroyed the pathway to get me to the building my teammates were in. I knew I didn't want the team chasing me to get ahold of the cash box, so I sacrificed myself by throwing the vault across that gap to my teammate before proceeding to hold enemies off as they delivered it to a station.
Even the greenery reacts to the player, especially when they have a flamethrower or flame grenade. At one moment, the station my team was delivering to was out in the open in a park. Other teams were coming at us from all angles, so I threw several fire grenades, and my teammate used a flamethrower. Doing this, we set most of the park aflame, forcing our opponents into pathways where we could pick them off more easily. Floors can crumble beneath you, staircases that get you to objectives can be destroyed, and a lot of map mayhem helps define each match of The Finals.
Leaving your mark
The Finals' destruction creates some compelling dynamics, making the player feel like they are shaping the world that each match takes place in. Players can customize their characters with outfits and special loadouts ahead of matches, and some of these options allow them to set down jump pads and ziplines or use a grappling hook to improve mobility. Turrets, barriers, and mines are also equippable, which can be used to direct the flow of battle and herd opponents into certain sections of the map. One particularly memorable moment saw my team calling two elevators in Seoul, only to find that another team had put a turret in one and all of themselves in another.

Read more
The best games on Xbox Game Pass for right now (March 2023)

As the Xbox Game Pass program has grown, so has our list of the best games on Xbox Game Pass. After the launch of the Xbox Series X, Microsoft has doubled down on Game Pass, now offering well over 350 games on the console alone. To help you through option paralysis, we rounded up the top games on Microsoft's subscription platform.

Many titles are available across Xbox and PC, and some of them even have cross-save support. Most of the games are available for streaming on mobile too, as long as you have Game Pass Ultimate. The Game Pass library is also constantly changing, so check out our monthly guide for addition and removal announcements.

Read more
Xbox Game Pass new games: what’s new and what’s leaving in March 2023
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty characters

While Microsoft was been hit with criticism for the Xbox Series X's slow-growing exclusive lineup -- several highly anticipated titles like Bethesda's Starfield and co-op shooter Redfall have been pushed to later in 2023 -- the company is still delivering one of the best deals in gaming: Xbox Game Pass.

Game Pass gives gamers access to a massive library of games that includes throwback hits, brand new titles on release day, and indie darlings. These games can be played on Xbox consoles, PC, mobile, and even Steam Deck.

Read more