Well, we are about one day away from this week’s showcase, which will almost certainly unveil the PS5 price and release date. Sony’s next big PS5 presentation is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, but some new details from Bloomberg are giving us a better indication on PlayStation 5 pre-order availability as well as what could very well be pricing that undercuts the official numbers Microsoft recently unveiled for Xbox Series X/S. More details below.
PS5 production/pre-orders:
Back in July, we got word that Sony had finally ramped up production on its next-generation consoles by millions — adding a level of assurance for early adopters. But along with hints at the possible PS5 price, Bloomberg is also now reporting issues with the console’s custom-designed system-on-chip. In fact, sources close to the matter are claiming that Sony has now cut its PlayStation 5 production estimates by millions for this fiscal year. Early this summer Sony was looking to have 10 million units out in the wild by the end of the year, but it looks like those estimates have now dropped to about 11 million units by March 2021 — about 4 million shy of the initial plan.
That will almost certainly put a damper on pre-orders to some degree and likely have some effect on how pricing will pan out alongside even more important factors like the Covid-19 pandemic, steadily growing number of PlayStation Plus subscriptions, and it’s PS4 swan song releases: The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima. However, Bloomberg analysts have also suggested the PS5 price might be much lower than initial projections suggested.
Possible PS5 price:
Microsoft just unveiled the $299 and $499 price tags for its upcoming Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X consoles, respectively. And with pre-orders kicking off on September 22, Sony will almost certainly drop the PS5 price and release date tomorrow afternoon. And if Bloomberg analysts are even mildly correct on this one, the standard version PS5 will undercut the Series X while the disc-less model from Sony will come it at nearly $100 more. More specifically, we could be looking at a $449 PS5 price tag and a listing for the digital-only version that “may dip below $400,” according to Bloomberg.
9to5Toys’ Take:
Early PlayStation 5 pre-orders are clearly going to be at least somewhat hard to come by. While it’s hard to gauge exactly how 4 million fewer units might affect early adopters, anything less than the targets are likely going to mean to system will get back-ordered sometime before the year is out, if not right away. As for the PS5 price, Bloomberg has been wrong before, and could be wrong again. But it has also been correct many times and a $450 price tag on the flagship machine would be a game-changer. While Microsoft will still carry the price advantage in the lower-end disc-less space, the last thing it wants is to fall behind again with its flagship machine. But, only time will tell now. Stay locked to 9to5Toys for tomorrow’s official PlayStation 5 showcase.
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