Analyst: PS4 Will Cost Less Than $400

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia has said that he believes Sony will charge no more than $400 for the PlayStation 4 at launch GameSpot reports.

Calling the PS3's initial price of $600 "extremely high" Bhatia argues that the company suffered as a result of the high cost of the console and will not make the same mistake again.

"Given that experience, we believe Sony will aim to keep the price point for PlayStation 4 below $400," he commented.

Noting that PlayStation Network is free Bhatia said that Sony has missed out on the opportunity to subsidise their next home console through a subscription model but the analyst still believes that Sony will stick to a sub-$400 pricetag – even if that means losing money on the console itself. 

His comments match those of Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter who has said that Sony will aim to launch the PS4 at $349. Pachter also believes the PS4 will launch for a lower price than the Xbox One which he thinks will retail for $399. 

Bhatia says that while Nintendo is in a "tough spot" you should "never write-off" the company as it still has the potential to surprise gamers.

Sony and Microsoft are likely to announce the price of their systems at their pre-E3 press conferences on Monday. It's also quite possible that we'll see price-drops for current-gen systems as well.