There were many reasons cited for the Playstation 3 having such an unformidable launch. A couple of these were its less-than-stellar launch library of games and its new technology – namely the cell processor – which caused developers to have a hard time learning the system.
However, at the summit of these issues was the seemingly preposterous price point Sony issued for its black box. The original came at a steep premium of $599. When Sony realized that this was not going to work, they released another model at $499. All of this said, $500 is still a ridiculous asking price for a piece of technology that hasn't proven itself yet. Gamers have come to love the Playstation 3, but Sony lost a lot of ground early on in the console cycle due to pricing errors.
Sony Worldwide Studios Vice President Michael Denny spoke on the pricing of the Playstation 4, and how technology plays an inherent role in setting an MSRP.
“I guess the first thing to say is that we listen and learn and take the judgement from every console launch we ever have and we have to be informed by what the strengths of our PlayStation 3 system have been, but also the challenges of that.
“We want a system that can reach as broad a gaming audience as possible but whilst being a system that’s deep, connected, rich and immersive and is going to give a very focused and differentiated experience than anything else that’s out there.”
With E3 2013 right around the corner in June, we're expecting to hear more about the system very soon. Until that time, it's likely that any big reveals regarding the PS4 remain under wraps.
