Michael Pachter Weighs in on Project Scorpio’s Price
The PS4 Pro is here in just one week and it’s coming in at a reasonable price of $399 USD. This new and improved model provides better hardware, 4K support and a bunch of previously released games are seeing patches to upscale their visuals. Microsoft’s upcoming console, still codenamed Project Scorpio is said to deliver true native 4K and based on pure specs alone looks like it will out power the PS4 Pro. Regardless of this extra mojo under the hood, it’s still a big question as to where the Project Scorpio will come in in terms of price. Known gaming analyst Michael Pachter weighed in recently on that exact question.
In an interview with GamingBolt, Pachter gave his thoughts on the Scorpio’s price versus the cost of a PS4 Pro saying, “Well, I think Microsoft would commit suicide if it was more than $399. And the problem they will face is if they launched it at $399, the PS4 Pro might discount to $349 in the same week. So I’d be really surprised if the Scorpio was more than $399.”
Pachter was quick to note, however, that Microsoft wasn’t afraid to launch the Xbox One with Kinect at $499 when it released. He continues saying, “I was really surprised when the Xbox One launched at $499 with Kinect, and it took them a while to unbundle Kinect and drop the price. So Microsoft has not executed well this cycle as far as pricing goes. Just as Sony executed poorly with the PS3’s pricing. So Microsoft’s playing catch-up, and I’m hopeful that they don’t make the same mistake with Scorpio that they did with the Xbox One.”
It’s too early to tell what the market will truly be like when Project Scorpio comes around but love him or hate him, Michael Pachter tends to be pretty spot on when looking at the gaming industry. $399 seems like a very reasonable price for a beefed up Xbox One but can Microsoft afford to sell the console at a loss? What will it actually cost to produce one of those machines and will the bottom line demand a higher price? It will be interesting to follow along over the next year and you can keep it locked to COGconnected for more information as we have it.