Rumour: PlayStation 4 to Launch at GBP£300 in UK

Post by Dan @ 04:56pm 19/02/13 | 13 Comments

According to UK publication The Times (thanks GI Int.), their industry sources and supposed "leaked internal documents" have revealed that Sony is targeting a GBP£300 price point for the launch of the next-generation PlayStation console (codenamed PlayStation Orbis), expected to be formally revealed at a New York "PlayStation Meeting" event later this week.

When Sony unveils its new PlayStation device this week, it will be far cheaper than many experts had expected — a price tag that, it is hoped, will lure millions of customers into buying its latest video games console.

Industry sources and leaked internal documents suggest that Sony is considering pricing the new device at about £300, more than £100 cheaper than the starting cost of its predecessor, the PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation 3's £425 UK launch price back in 2007 actually worked out to be a few quid higher than the Australian AU$999 ticket at the time when the exchange rate was around GPB£1 to AUD$2.40.

If there was to be a similar proportional relationship between Sony's UK and Australian pricing again, that reported £300 point would convert to only around AUD$450 at today's rates --not a whole lot more than the AUD$429 Deluxe bundle Wii U (which was/is RRP£300 in the UK).

Too good to be true? It would certainly make for an aggressively competitive start to the next-gen.

playstation 4 playstation orbis price sony

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fpot
Posted 04:58pm 19/2/13

All depends on the hardware.

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Dan
Posted 05:01pm 19/2/13

The hardware spec rumours are far more solid, corroborated by many developer sources of many reputable publications, to the point of being practically confirmed. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df-hardware-spec-analysis-durango-vs-orbis

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Khel
Posted 05:22pm 19/2/13

I reckon $599 will be the price here. I base this on no research, just a hunch, but it just feels right. Might be a cheaper bare-bones type offering for cheaper, but I reckon the standard one that most will be getting will be pegged around $599

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slamma
Posted 06:29pm 19/2/13

I reckon about 700-800 bucks

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Trauma
Posted 06:42pm 19/2/13

that reported £300 point would convert to only around AUD$450 at today's rates.

One cannot simply convert the amount, this is Australia!

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paveway
Posted 07:23pm 19/2/13

if it is $600 or less i'd look into getting one early depending on games available

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Eorl
Posted 07:27pm 19/2/13

Interesting. I'm still a bit pessimistic on these rumoured prices, what with the current rumoured specs being quite high for both the Durango and the Orbis, each having an apparent 8 core AMD CPU and some near current modified GPU. Guess we shall just have to wait it out until Thursday, but really what will sell these consoles is the games.

While I love my Wii U, its not doing so well game wise this month (obviously that will change next month with a fair few high titles releasing) but I'm still getting a heap of enjoyment out of New Super Mario Bros. U, ZombiU and Scribblenauts. What I'm going to find the most difficult is choosing between the Orbis or the Durango for their exclusives, though most likely leaning towards Sony's console just because I'm not a big fan of Halo or Gears of War.

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Dan
Posted 07:54pm 19/2/13

One cannot simply convert the amount, this is Australia!

Not generally, but the UK is notoriously screwed on console hardware regional pricing too, so in most examples a direct currency conversion isn't too far off the mark.

That said, I personally doubt the accuracy of this rumour. I guess that maybe some kind of cut down newbie model could scrape that low, but it seems extremely unlikely, especially for the UK. It would mean a sub US$450 launch price in North America, because it would definitely be cheaper there.

Who knows though, maybe they'll pull some kind of 2 year contract dealie with a PlayStation Plus sub or something, like MS have been doing with $99 x360s and 2 years of Xbox Live in the US. Taking a page out of the mobile phone carrier subsidy model.

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IVY_MiKe
Posted 06:06pm 20/2/13

All depends on the hardware.

For mine, this is far from the truth in the 'next generation console wars'.

I really don't think the PS3 needs that big a step up in performance (perhaps with 4k around the corner, but I doubt very much that any of the inbound generation of consoles would have that on their radar at all).

What the PS4 needs is a far better refined 'experience'... that is to say, consider the XMB in the current range of 'Playstation experience'... if I could charge Sony 1c per 5 seconds I've been staring at that menu 'load/rendering' over the past 6 years, I'm sure I'd have a few bucks to show for it.

Whilst the only development house that I'm currently excited to see the next range of consoles for would be Rockstar (as most everything else is readily available on PC). I'm looking at a 'tighter' menu system, with less annoying login 'loading' screens and better menu structure. (I know PSN 'auto-updates' games you've got installed for you, but that shouldn't really be a premium feature. For mine the current consoles kinda suck for 'pick-up-and-play' because the first thing you're met with EVERY-F*****-TIME you want to play something is 'there's an update to download' and then... at least the AU PSN... you standing there, with your d*** in your hand staring at a 15mb file that takes /too-f*****-long/ to download.)

Sorry for the wall-of-text... I tried to think of it in a more structured manner... but it kinda came about as a rant.

EDIT: on looking over this post it doesn't really relate to the OP... but I think we're kidding ourselves if $600 is the guesstimate on the release price of the console in AU.

PSX launched at $700+ and the PS2 was similar as I recall. Then there was the PS3 @ $999.95.

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Khel
Posted 06:16pm 20/2/13

Yeah, but I think people are even less willing to pay that now for a console than they were then.

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skythra
Posted 06:54pm 20/2/13

Yeah, but I think people are even less willing to pay that now for a console than they were then.

What do you factor that on? The wii? The rise of tablet's meeting partial demand? Other low end players like steambox+ouya?

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Khel
Posted 07:01pm 20/2/13

Well I'm just thinking that since the last generation came out the console market has exploded, partly because of the Wii but partly because of all the people who started picking up XBox 360's and PS3's once they became budget priced. Its waaaaaaaay bigger than the 'core' market that PS3 and XBox originally launched to 8 years ago. I seriously doubt those sort of people are going to pay $800 or $900 for a new playstation when its sitting next to a bunch of other consoles (in the case of the Wii-U, new consoles even) that are half the price or less than half the price. It would be an extremely tough sell.

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paveway
Posted 07:04pm 20/2/13

a large gfc in the middle there as well, people we're still suffering from

gfc also caused global warming

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