How would you price next Playstation, Xbox?

If you were in charge? And what SKUs would you offer?

Given the additional year (at least) and the savings from using a conventional gamepad, I think that even at $300 both will easily outperform WiiU.

Personally, I'd like to see a non-gimmicky SKU from both at around $450, securing true next gen performance.

They'll probably be similar in price and each offer at least two different SKUs.

I reckon anything north of 300 quid is a fair bet.

$399 Max :) ($499 if bundled with extra controller, bigger HDD & games)

£300

That 56pg document suggests MS were aiming for $299 incl a Kinect 2. If they do this, and include a traditional controller, I don't think they could afford to beat the Wii U's power output (interpret this as 'graphics' if you will) by more than 10-20%. Even so, is this a bad thing? Straight away you form the multiplat majority and become the multiplat majority graphics winner.

Although it is fun to just go ballistic, in this economy MS/Sony would be prudent to price conservatively.

I would like to see either MS/Sony release at the $300 price point, but:

• Traditional controller - save money to spend on power
• No Kinect/Move - same rationale. More power money.
• No internal hard disc please just use cheap flash memory for even more power money, but go with USB 3.0. Allow people to install to the external USB 3.0 for fast loading times.
• Fast read speed of ODD. I don't care about changing discs, I'm not in a wheelchair. If DVD is significantly cheaper then perhaps it is smart to save the money to spend on power. But for people who are in wheelchairs, or too lazy to change discs, why not allow people to install all discs, but you can only play the game when Disc 1 is inserted? I remember my 5x CD installation of Half Life 2 and this was the method used.
• DVD/Blu Ray disc playback? Seriously if it saves money to repurpose on power I am happy for them to leave this out entirely. Streaming content via the internet is my preference.
• Backwards compatibility with old controllers so I don't have to buy another controller for two player out of the box.

Obviously the above description could just be their crappiest SKU. If they did this for $299 the budget for power would have to be well in excess of the Wii U. Meaning they could achieve a desirable price point with more powerful hardware.

But what are MS/Sony really thinking? Who knows ... how can we fit Wonderbook/Kinect/Move/Duke Nukem Foreverandever in the package ... more feces we don't need.

The PS, 599US Dollars.

The xbox around 300 dollars.

No higher than $450 and at least a 320GB model since digital distribution with he huge next gen.BPoole96

Quite expensive, but very complete. Considering the Nextbox is coming with kinect might bump up the price quite a bit, but you'll be getting everything in the box rather than buying the console and then buying accessories.

Not sure whats happening with the PS4

The Wii-U will HAVE to be cheaper than the next Sony and Xbox consoles.

No higher than $450 and at least a 320GB model since digital distribution with he huge next gen.BPoole96

Ok no point get them at all then, just get a Steam PC

~300$, 300gb min.

Take a good initial hit on profits with hardware and focus on making it back with services(/subscriptions) and software sales.

@psymon100, SSD's are still far too expensive, you'd waste too much $ on a quick drive sacrificing it where you could have had better general performance. More ram, better GPU/CPU and a good ol' harddrive, or neither and a SSD.

And DVD has to get dropped, it's just silly when 'vastly' superior formats exist and it doubles as movie playing functionality to have a blu-ray drive so it also increases value for money if it can play modern formats.

[QUOTE="BPoole96"]No higher than $450 and at least a 320GB model since digital distribution with he huge next gen.Wiiyou

Ok no point get them at all then, just get a Steam PC

Guess you better not bother with the WiiU (or other next-gen consoles) by that logic. Anyone who denies that DD is going to be huge is just silly.

$399 Max :) ($499 if bundled with extra controller, bigger HDD & games)

Malta_1980

This. ^

Defiitely a bigger bundle at $499 and the main one at $399. If Sony goes $600 again then something is seriously wrong with their head.

I think about £300 is the sweet spot. And likely that microsoft (and probably sony) will offer a subscription model too for people who don't want to lay down £300 in one go.

@psymon100, SSD's are still far too expensive, you'd waste too much $ on a quick drive sacrificing it where you could have had better general performance. More ram, better GPU/CPU and a good ol' harddrive, or neither and a SSD.

Inconsistancy

I never suggested SSD's man. I was talking about Flash Memory like the Wii U or cellphones use, to keep costs down. Let the console purchaser then choose how much storage capacity they do or don't want. Mostly because I don't want to pay the premium that comes with proprietary, or 2.5 inch drives.

I do see your point about DVDs being too outdated I think maybe I was being a bit too cheap there, but at the same time if two consoles were identical but one cost $50 less and omits the functionality to play Blu Rays - I would choose the cheaper model. Obviously this is possible as Wii U has a Blu Ray type drive but cannot play the movies.

I would pay $400 for PS4 or Xbox 3. Up to $450 if they have really impressive hardware.

[QUOTE="Inconsistancy"]

@psymon100, SSD's are still far too expensive, you'd waste too much $ on a quick drive sacrificing it where you could have had better general performance. More ram, better GPU/CPU and a good ol' harddrive, or neither and a SSD.

psymon100

I never suggested SSD's man. I was talking about Flash Memory like the Wii U or cellphones use, to keep costs down. Let the console purchaser then choose how much storage capacity they do or don't want. Mostly because I don't want to pay the premium that comes with proprietary, or 2.5 inch drives.

I do see your point about DVDs being too outdated I think maybe I was being a bit too cheap there, but at the same time if two consoles were identical but one cost $50 less and omits the functionality to play Blu Rays - I would choose the cheaper model. Obviously this is possible as Wii U has a Blu Ray type drive but cannot play the movies.

Price per gb, and performance for the price is far from worth it. My HDD is 150MB/s Read, 90 Write @ .05$ per gig, my flash drive is 120Read, 30 write @ 1$per gig.

[QUOTE="psymon100"]

[QUOTE="Inconsistancy"]

@psymon100, SSD's are still far too expensive, you'd waste too much $ on a quick drive sacrificing it where you could have had better general performance. More ram, better GPU/CPU and a good ol' harddrive, or neither and a SSD.

Inconsistancy

I never suggested SSD's man. I was talking about Flash Memory like the Wii U or cellphones use, to keep costs down. Let the console purchaser then choose how much storage capacity they do or don't want. Mostly because I don't want to pay the premium that comes with proprietary, or 2.5 inch drives.

I do see your point about DVDs being too outdated I think maybe I was being a bit too cheap there, but at the same time if two consoles were identical but one cost $50 less and omits the functionality to play Blu Rays - I would choose the cheaper model. Obviously this is possible as Wii U has a Blu Ray type drive but cannot play the movies.

Price per gb, and performance for the price is far from worth it. My HDD is 150MB/s Read, 90 Write @ .05$ per gig, my flash drive is 120Read, 30 write @ 1$per gig.

Price per gig I totally agree with you. But how big is your hard drive? If it's 1TB or larger ... you have to buy a lot of gigs to get that volume discount. What's the biggest hard disc a console has ever come with? Have they even beaten 400 gigs yet? Would we see a 1TB console, or perhaps they might not be able to keep the price low?

This brings me exactly to my points.

• I, like you, would want the biggest hard per unit of cost.The Xbox used 3.5inch, the PS360 used more costly 2.5 inch (with MS opting for a proprietary one even further pushing up the price). So as you can see 2/3 times they've opted for a more expensive hard disc than I would want to use.
• Pretend that the console allows for any external USB 3.0 hard disc, not much more expensive than a 3.5inch SATA internal. Straight away a bonus, because in the future if I sell the console or I find I'm not needing the hard drive, I can repurpose USB Hard discs.
• And the last reason is - you tell me how much memory you are going to include with the console's hard disc? Wrong. I don't want that much. I want to choose from the range of consumer hard discs available the drive I want. And if I don't want to plug it into the power I will choose a 2.5inch one.

So just include the bare minimum amount of flash memory, even if it is more expensive in relative terms but less expensive in absolute terms. This opens the door to let the consumer choose whether or not to add storage capacity which 1 doesn't carry a price premium, 2 isn't of a proprietary format, and 3 achieves the capacity they desire.

400 seems about the sweet spot but I'd go 450 - 500 if it delivered at least that much bang for the buck.

When I'm talking about SSDs I'm talking about SSDs, when I'm talking about Flash memory I'm talking about flash memory. They are different like how egg, and egg salad are different.

Price per gig I totally agree with you. But how big is your hard drive? If it's 1TB or larger ... you have to buy a lot of gigs to get that volume discount. What's the biggest hard disc a console has ever come with? Have they even beaten 400 gigs yet? Would we see a 1TB console, or perhaps they might not be able to keep the price low?

This brings me exactly to my points.

• I, like you, would want the biggest hard per unit of cost.The Xbox used 3.5inch, the PS360 used more costly 2.5 inch (with MS opting for a proprietary one even further pushing up the price). So as you can see 2/3 times they've opted for a more expensive hard disc than I would want to use.
• Pretend that the console allows for any external USB 3.0 hard disc, not much more expensive than a 3.5inch SATA internal. Straight away a bonus, because in the future if I sell the console or I find I'm not needing the hard drive, I can repurpose USB Hard discs.
• And the last reason is - you tell me how much memory you are going to include with the console's hard disc? Wrong. I don't want that much. I want to choose from the range of consumer hard discs available the drive I want. And if I don't want to plug it into the power I will choose a 2.5inch one.

So just include the bare minimum amount of flash memory, even if it is more expensive in relative terms but less expensive in absolute terms. This opens the door to let the consumer choose whether or not to add storage capacity which 1 doesn't carry a price premium, 2 isn't of a proprietary format, and 3 achieves the capacity they desire.

psymon100

Their price per gb and performance isn't really different (between flash devices), nearly 1$/gb and upto 120:35MB/s per drive (ssd's contain multiple drives and just are in parrallel to increase performance)

1TB HDD is 80$ (and that's still inflated from the floods, these drives were 80$ years ago) a 128gb SSD is 100$. (my newest harddrive is 3tb)

If you're not going to install or offer other services(since SSD's certainly aren't cost effective for this), and go bare minimums you're just using a SSD for swap, and then you're much better off upping the system ram instead and pair it with a hdd.

With DD becoming more and more desired and used, having a 'bigger' drive is more beneficial than a super fast one. Also Sony and MS are moving to more multimedia features, I'd not be surprised to see DVR as a feature for them, and that needs a big drive. The larger the games get, and the more multi-media features they tack on, the bigger the drive space will need to be.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo doesn't make it out of next-gen as a first party. MS and Sony are fighting to be the dominate 'all-in-one' multi-media device, and Nintendo is still trying the cutesy ~dedicated gaming console. Nintendo made a lot of money off initial hardware sales, but MS came out on top. (in the market {slow and steady...})

"and 3 achieves the capacity 'they' desire."

Don't try to sell "expandability on a closed platform" as a feature, it's an extra hoop the consumer has to jump through. "Oh, I ran out of space, time to delete or buy a new drive..."

If you were in charge? And what SKUs would you offer?

Given the additional year (at least) and the savings from using a conventional gamepad, I think that even at $300 both will easily outperform WiiU.

Personally, I'd like to see a non-gimmicky SKU from both at around $450, securing true next gen performance.

KiZZo1

For better or worse, I doubt I would get what I want in a next gen console for less then around the 500 mark, that inclused the initial loss of selling the console for cheaper then it were to make.

Basicly this all comes down to wanting a low cost console, or one that is just remotely in the area code of what alot of people think they would be capable of.

I would prefer to go for performance, since we will likely see another 10 year lifecycle in the next consoles.

It depends. Am I pricing it as a system that everyone in general can afford? Or am I going for a specific smaller group (like ferrari, not made for the general person)? How much of a profit do I want to make on these systems? Do I want my system to be crazy powerful? All of these need to be taken into consederation.

However for next gen I am guessing $400-$450. We are also in an economic dump, so it could possibly be lower as most people are trying to save money.

$400 is the sweet spot between outdated tech and overpricing.

$400 is the sweet spot between outdated tech and overpricing.

PatchMaster

Hey, I think the poll has a message for WiiU ...

Don't try to sell "expandability on a closed platform" as a feature, it's an extra hoop the consumer has to jump through. "Oh, I ran out of space, time to delete or buy a new drive...Inconsistancy

Basic SKU at $400 with increases beyond that for various things. Wouldn't have a baes SKU anything higher than $400.

400 for xbox720 a 300 dollar version should also be available like the wii u , offer 250 gigs of hdd , or less for that one and offer 320 or more gigs for the higher end model , also kenict should come with the higher end while a controller should be sufficent for lower end

the ps4 is alot mroe harder to predict but ---if sony wants to succeed 300-350 dont go crazy on the graphics , and offer similar value wii u is offering ,

again except flash a 160 gig low end model and a 320 gig high end model ,,

that way next gen people aint breaking their wallets!

When I'm talking about SSDs I'm talking about SSDs, when I'm talking about Flash memory I'm talking about flash memory. They are different like how egg, and egg salad are different.psymon100

I don't care what you "feel" like calling something, the difference is: One is is like a single flash drive, and the other is like several flash drives in parallel.

Inconsistancy

ctrl+f, types in 'feel', what a surprise. I never used that word. Please don't say I said things I didn't say, that's rather insulting.

I used references and if you'd like to convince anyone of something I'd suggest doing the same. You mentioned SSD when I mentioned Flash memory.The references I gave back me up that SSD and Flash memory are not interchangable terms. This is dry emotionless science. For example, I'm not going to call the 8/32GB of memory in the Wii U an SSD as that's academically wrong. This discussion might be better if you'd modify your views to make them congruent with reality.

I am really enjoying the other aspects of this discussion inconsistancy, and you made some good points in your last post eg - that low initial flash storage so you can upgrade using a drive providing good value isn't a feature. You're quite right, but of course I am focussing more on spending as little as possible on anything except graphics/CPU. So I still maintain that although my solution may gimp the system's storage, at least the consumer wouldn't pay a price premium for something as cheap as storage.

I do agree with you, a hard disc and more RAM is great, but these guys have a budget to work with. So what is a better decision? Offer at $300 with a small flash memory eating into the APU/CPU/GPU/Whatever budget, or offer at $300 with a hard disc eating into the budget? If you want it to be a $400 machine, that's cool, but the same logic applies. Money on more expensive storage has to come from somewhere dude (more expensive in absolute terms).

I think I can suggest some middle ground for us. If they used a flash memory to contain the OS installation files only, and the unit came with an upgradable, SATA, 3.5inch drive. At any time you could replace the hard disk with any SATA hard disk, and the OS detects this and installs itself to the HDD from the flash memory. The consumer would get good value when they first purchase the system as 3.5 inch form factor gives awesome value, something we have both agreed on. Devs could count on there being a hard disk in there for use as a cache, something you suggested as important and I do agree. When storage runs low the consumer can choose a great value hard disc, and physically putting it in would be similar in technicalities to putting a hard disk into the PS3 - which I think is incredibly easy.

I think I can suggest some middle ground for us. If they used a flash memory to contain the OS installation files only, and the unit came with an upgradable, SATA, 3.5inch drive. At any time you could replace the hard disk with any SATA hard disk, and the OS detects this and installs itself to the HDD from the flash memory.

psymon100

Also inconsistancy, since my suggestion is to make the 'non-GPU/CPU/APU' componentry as cheap as possible, another option would be to forget the flash memory altogether, and have an installation disc for the OS, which you only need to use when you put a fresh hard disk in. Might only shave $10 from the Bill of Materials though...

400 BUCKS

Hey, I think the poll has a message for WiiU ...

KiZZo1