14 DAY TRIAL // Sony has confirmed that it aimed at a 399 USD/EUR price for the PlayStation 4 right from the beginning, confirming that it wanted to offer an accessible device and, after learning that the rival Xbox One costs 499 USD/EUR, it's quite happy about the advantage it has over Microsoft.
E3 2013 is underway, and quite a few big announcements were made in the last couple of days, with the two most important being the confirmations of prices for both the Xbox One, which costs $499/€499, and the PlayStation 4, which has a tag of $399/€399.
The much lower price of the PS4 wasn't a quick decision after learning Microsoft's intended price, however, as Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida told CVG that the plan for the PS4 to cost 399 USD/EUR was set in stone from the get-go.
"Designing PS4 was all about learning lessons from PS3; the system architecture, ease of development, network services... And the cost of the system is a big part of it. So we always wanted to hit $399 and we designed the system and carefully chose out of all the potential inclusions of the core hardware components and we made a system that we could sell for $399."
"So we just did what we aimed to do and we were hoping that people would like it. But we were not totally expecting the external factors that kind of helped us do our business. In short, I was very surprised about the announcement yesterday by some other company... In a good way (laughs)."
Yoshida noted that the price will be a big advantage over the Xbox One, as it ultimately proved a decisive factor for the Xbox 360 over the PlayStation 3 many years ago.
"Now that we know there's an advantage, it's great to be in this position. If you remember six or seven years ago, how difficult it was for us to launch PS3 with price differentiation."
Both consoles are expected to appear at the end the year, and the Xbox One already has a November release window.