While we don’t exactly know when the next PlayStation and Xbox consoles will arrive, the working theory is that they may come with a $1,000 price tag attached. An analytics firm is suggesting, however, that should this happen, Microsoft and Sony would be shooting themselves in the foot and costing their business billions by 2031.
According to an August 17 breakdown, the market-research firm Ampere Analysis has published an examination of the $1,000 console price consideration. The group said that if Microsoft and Sony launched “conventionally designed, incrementally improved next-generation consoles” in 2028 that ran your wallet that eye-watering $1,000 price tag, the PlayStation 6 and Xbox Project Helix would see a 38% lower sales rate in the first five years as compared to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S over the same period.
Such a slow adoption rate would ultimately cost the console games and services market $3.4 billion by 2031 if $1,000 systems become a thing, according to Ampere Analysis’ estimation. And considering that the Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S have all seen multiple price increases in recent months due to the ongoing chip shortage, a $1,000 PlayStation or Xbox isn’t out of the realm of possibility anymore. The Steam Machine is over $1,000 already.
The market-research firm did suggest three possible solutions for how Microsoft and Sony could avoid a $1,000 console::
- Stay the course with “incrementally improved next-generation consoles,” but “delay the launch of the next generation beyond the end of 2028, extending the lifecycle of current consoles.” That way, both companies can monitor the chipageddon situation.
- Aim for the 2028 release window, but reduce prices by leveraging “heavier hardware subsidies, new monetization models, more aggressive digital content strategies, and optimized sales channels” to recoup lost costs.
- Ditch the modest upgrade and opt to “substantially innovate on hardware form factor and use cases, placing less emphasis on graphical improvement” to differentiate the current-gen from the next-gen consoles better while keeping prices low. Think of the Wii here.
Whatever the decision ends up being, Ampere Analysis is urging Microsoft and Sony not to release consoles that cost that much. Otherwise, console gaming may be a much tougher sell for consumers.
