Sony doesn’t think physical games are enough of a factor to differentiate its PlayStation consoles from PCs and is focusing more on big exclusives and more affordable pricing.
Although Sony has yet to show the PlayStation 6, or even refer to it by name, it has touched upon its plans for the next generation of hardware, such as how it will go ‘beyond the living room’ in what seems to be a hint at a rumoured handheld device.
During the company’s most recent earnings report, Sony also discussed how it’s ramping up investment into its next hardware, which lends credence to claims that the PlayStation 6 will be ready for 2027 or 2028.
At the moment, though, there’s barely any excitement for the thing, particularly because it’s expected to be obscenely expensive. However, according to Sony, whatever price tag the PlayStation 6 gets, it’ll still be cheaper than a gaming PC.
The new comments came from an earnings call with investors when Sony’s chief financial officer Lin Tao was asked about the company’s decision to abandon releasing physical games, which it remains committed to despite the continuous online furore.
It was pointed out that the removal of disc support arguably makes PlayStation consoles no different to a PC, so the question became how does Sony plan to differentiate the two formats?
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‘We don’t feel that the disc is the factor to differentiate from the PC,’ responded Tao (as transcribed by Investing.com), ‘For PC, there’s certain ways to play with the PC as a user. It’s a long tail. Our strength is that the curated contents, that’s one of our strengths.’
Tao is obviously referring to PlayStation exclusives, which Sony has decided to no longer port to PC, at least in terms of single-player games. She went on to say that ‘Compared to the high-end gaming PC, our product is more affordable. We don’t feel that the disc itself is a strong factor for differentiation. Going forward, we can coexist peacefully with PC games.’
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Nowadays, a high-end gaming PC will set you back at least £1,500 and over £3,000 if you wanted an especially powerful one, so that’s not a particularly precise comparison to be making. It goes without saying though, that Sony won’t want the PlayStation 6 to be more expensive than a gaming PC, thereby making that seem a more desirable alternative.
Does this mean the PlayStation 6 won’t be as expensive as people fear? No, this thing’s going to be costly, especially since hardware in general keeps becoming increasingly expensive, including the PlayStation 5, and the component shortages responsible for this show no signs of slowing down.
Combined with the fact that Sony has already said it won’t be selling new hardware at ‘significant losses,’ rumours of the PlayStation 6 costing at least £1,000 sound perfectly viable. And technically that is cheaper than a high-end gaming PC, just not very much cheaper.
So, while the PlayStation 6 will technically be ‘more affordable’ than a new PC, it’ll still be a huge financial investment and a tough sell unless Sony has some truly massive exclusives to launch alongside it.
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