Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan has reiterated that the PlayStation 5’s price was determined earlier in 2020 and that the pandemic didn’t have any bearing on the decision.
Speaking to EDGE magazine, he said that Sony is “very happy” that it was able to launch a version of the PS5 for $399 – the same price that it launched the PS4 at in 2013. Ignoring the severe shortage and the scalper fiasco, it is pretty impressive that the cheaper console comes packed with the same hardware as its expensive counterpart, minus the blu ray drive.
Ryan said:
We fixed on our product lineup late last year. Our preferred pricing was determined early in this calendar year, pre-lockdown. And we just got on and executed with what we wanted to do.
No, no, it [the price] didn’t [change], no. We’ve been able to launch PlayStation 5 at $399 / €399, with all the horsepower and the feature set that the console has, at the same price that we launched PS4 back in 2013. That was important for us, and we’re very happy that we’ve been able to do that. 399 worked very well for us last time around and we’d like it to work very well for us this time around, too.
Ryan added that the PS5 is due to receive great first-party games earlier in the cycle compared to the PS4. He said that the 2021 lineup is “of a different level than we’ve ever seen before.”
Ryan previously said that Sony will continue to make cross-gen games for the foreseeable future, but the PS5 versions of those games will be built from the ground up.
