It happens in every console life cycle. Parts get smaller and cheaper, production lines get streamlined, and overall costs go down. Sony has just made that jump and has cut costs to make the PS3.
Nikko Citigroup has reported that by shrinking the chip sizes, re-evaluating parts (ie removing the Emotion Engine) and various other design tweaks, Sony has been able to bring the production cost of each console down to $400US from what was pre-November pre-40Gb model, $800US.
Keep in mind, this is referring to the 40GB model, which seems to be the only SKU that will remain once all other versions are sold off. Even still, that’s a break even price for the PS3. I’m not sure the Xbox 360 has reached that point yet? The Wii has sold for profit since day one, something very rare in our industry.
[via Mygen]
nostars
January 11, 2008 - 4:58 pm1
Good for Sony, too bad we won’t see a cut of the profit once it gets to that point.
mister needles
January 11, 2008 - 8:44 pm2
HA hopefully this pisses off all those people who waited night and day to pay the 800 bucks for it. One dude in florida got shot over it. 360 FTW.
drunk pandas
January 11, 2008 - 9:20 pm3
Why would a cost reduction on Sony’s end piss off gamers? And who paid $800 for it other than dumb people on Ebay?
M.S.
January 12, 2008 - 9:25 am4
So when will the ps3’s be cheaper than 400?
drunk pandas
January 12, 2008 - 9:28 am5
All signs have pointed to a price drop sometime in 2008, and I’m pretty sure it will happen.
nostars
January 12, 2008 - 12:03 pm6
I’m not quite sure how it’s going to piss off people who paid extra to have it first. I think they knew what they were getting into.