This PS5 Price Leak Might Be Too Good To Be True
The PlayStation 5 is still slated to arrive sometime this holiday season, but we have yet to hear anything concrete regarding how much the system will cost. However, a recent Nielsen survey shared on Reddit may give us an idea of price points that are being considering for both the standard PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition. The only problem is that the prices listed on the survey seem almost too good to be true.
A Reddit user recently shared a screenshot from a survey they participated in that mentioned some interesting details regarding the PS5's price point. That post has since been taken down by moderators, but the original text of the survey has been provided via NotebookCheck.
In this survey, customers were asked to respond to proposed price points for the PlayStation 5. The shared portion of the survey read, "the pricing of this new product (PlayStation 5) has not yet been determined. For the purposes of this survey, we will assign you random pricing. Please take this random pricing into consideration at the following questions. The random prices for this new product (PlayStation 5) that you will evaluate are PlayStation 5: £349; PlayStation 5 Digital Edition: £259."
As pointed out by a comment on the original Reddit thread, those prices convert to roughly $435 USD for the standard PS5 and $323 USD for the Digital Edition. And yes, you're right in thinking that those prices sound insanely low, especially considering what we've heard about the PlayStation 5 up to this point.
It has been suggested that the PS5 would most likely have to retail in the $500 range for Sony to make a profit off of the console. This is because the manufacturing costs of the system are more expensive than in previous console generations. Rumors suggest that the standard PS5 costs Sony roughly $450-470 to manufacture, so the company would be taking a pretty hefty loss charging these low prices.
So what is the deal here? It's worth noting that the language used in the survey seems to suggest that Nielsen doesn't know the actual price of the PlayStation 5. Because of this, it's more than likely that these insanely low price points are not meant to be taken as a true indicator of what the console will end up costing.
In a recent press release, Nielsen explained that its new Retail Pricing Analytics system is meant to help companies navigate the difficult task of properly pricing goods and services during a time of economic uncertainty. This PS5 survey is probably an example of Nielsen attempting to gauge customer interest in a variety of price points, which can then be passed on to Sony or simply added to Nielsen's research algorithm. There may be further surveys done with a variety of price points to see what people are willing to plunk down for the latest and greatest Sony consoles, but that remains to be seen.
If that is the plan, this could help Sony figure out how to adjust its marketing strategies ahead of the PS5's release. The company has already had to scrap and rethink some of its PS5 marketing in the last several months, so having a bit of a heads up on what customers are willing to pay couldn't hurt.
While the price points mentioned in the Nielsen survey probably aren't quite accurate, there is some precedent to suggest that Sony would be willing to take a bit of a loss. The PlayStation 3 was reportedly sold for a significantly lower price than it cost to manufacture, but the company was able to cut those costs over time. It could be that Sony is banking on a similar situation here, hooking customers at release and recouping losses over the course of the console generation.
It's also worth noting that one part of the survey does seem to line up with what we've heard from previous apparent leaks. The PS5 Digital Edition is expected to retail for around $100 less than the standard edition, so at least that part rings true.
Whatever the case, it does seem like the price points listed in this survey are too good to be true. It's interesting that the survey screenshot was taken down by moderators, but that could just be due to the fact that these surveys are usually meant to remain confidential. Hopefully we'll hear something soon regarding the official PlayStation 5 price point. Until then, this survey gives us some interesting numbers to mull over while we wait.