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

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.

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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.

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.

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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.
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Leaving your mark
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