Sony to Sell Playstation 4 For $399, $100 Less Than XBox One

Coming by year's end

Sony's taken a bold move that's helped it with the gaming community by announcing that its PlayStation 4 will cost $399 at launch: $100 less than its main competitor, the Xbox One.

That was a bit of a surprise, as Sony doesn't exactly have a reputation for being easy on the wallet. But pricing decision and other parts of the company's big keynote demonstrates that Sony's doubling down on its core gaming audience with its PlayStation 4 launch, and sets the tone for this year's game industry show, the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Comments

[Brendan]

Don't forget that the PS4 will not need to call home daily in order to work. That makes it a better gaming system for the upcoming zombie apocalypse.

The Xbone is worthless after 24 hours if you want to play while holed up during a hurricane, tornado, etc. Ditto for road trips, etc. that involve places that don't have internet access or limit it to 1 MAC address.

[ant1sthenes]

Let's also not forget
1) Microluv's requirement to use their always-on, privacy-invading camera
2) their creepy (in light of present news) emphasis on running game processing through the "cloud", I guess so the NSA can check and see if you named your Dragonborn EyeH8Obama
3) Their crackdown on used gaming, basically introducing all the consumer downsides of PC gaming without any of the liberating benefits.

XBone is a gaming system for slave-folk. Any self-respecting libertarian should avoid it like the plague.

[JWatts]

Honestly, most of these items don't bother me. I don't pirate, don't buy used games and like the Kinect. My XBox 360 has been connected to the internet and set to auto-update for the last 5 years.

However, pricing their system $100 more than Sony does bother me. Though it wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft sells the system for $499 and then drops the price to $399 the day the Sony P4 launches.

I'm not wedded to any particular company. Sony's P4 was overpriced and it's online component was lackluster compared to Microsoft's XBox 360. However, if Sony produces a better and cheaper console this generation I'll switch over.

[JWatts]

That should have read "Sony's P3 was overpriced". It's noteworthy the original HDMI equipped P3 was priced at $599 (seven years ago), but the new P4 will debut at $399. Sony apparently learned their lesson from that business decision.