Sony hikes PS5 prices in some markets, US consumers spared

TOKYO - Sony's PlayStation 5 is already notoriously difficult to find, and on Thursday the popular console's manufacturer said that it will also become more expensive for gamers in many parts of the world.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has recommended raising the console's retail price in Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan, China, Australia, Mexico and Canada, the company's top official Jim Ryan said.

US consumers will be spared from the hikes, Ryan said, without providing further explanation.

The price rises will see a PS5 Digital Edition retail in Europe for 449.99 euros ($450), up from 399.99 euros.

The same console will be sold in the UK for 389.99 pounds ($462), up from 359.99 pounds, and in Japan for 49,478 yen ($363), up from 43,978 yen.

Sony blamed "high global inflation rates as well as adverse currency trends" for the price increases.

"Based on these challenging economic conditions, SIE has made the difficult decision to increase the recommended retail price of PlayStation 5 in select markets," Ryan said in a statement.

Sony's current top priority is to address a supply crunch that has made PS5s difficult to buy, he said.

Earlier, console competitor Nintendo said it was not considering raising prices for the moment. 

"In order to offer unique entertainment to a wide range of customers, we want to avoid pricing people out," President Shuntaro Furukawa told the Nikkei business daily in an article published earlier this month.

"Our competition is the variety of entertainment in the world, and we always think about pricing in terms of the value of the fun we offer," he said.

Agence France-Presse

Clash of consoles: New PlayStation and Xbox enter $150 billion games arena

TOKYO/CHICAGO/STOCKHOLM - Think Michelangelo vs Da Vinci. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Batman v Superman. Another epic rivalry is rejoined next week when Sony and Microsoft go head-to-head with the next generation of their blockbuster video-game consoles.

Sony, whose PlayStation 5 (PS5) takes on Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Series S, is widely viewed as being in pole position to capitalize on a pandemic-driven boom in consumer spending that has buoyed the $150 billion video game industry.

The Japanese company's deep bench of games and broader fan base - it has sold over 100 million PS4s, winning the battle of the previous generation - should see it retain its edge over it American archrival, according to industry experts.

"People who own Xbox tend to buy the new Xbox, while people who own PlayStation tend to buy the new PlayStation," said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.

Yet the industry is changing and cloud gaming is on the rise, allowing games to be streamed without bulky hardware. This could curb console sales in coming years, analysts say, a shift that could benefit Microsoft.

The two consoles - the first to be released by the two companies for seven years - are eagerly awaited; the Xbox will go on sale on Tuesday, and the PS5 two days later in core markets, costing about $300 to $500 apiece.

The race to order the devices in advance actually began weeks ago, though blink and you might have missed it. Pre-orders of Sony's PS5 sold out within minutes on many retail sites, for example, frustrating fans.

Julian Mercado, 17, managed to reserve a PS5 from Walmart.com just minutes after pre-orders started on Sept. 16, knowing he'd be up against a legion of gamers.

"It's exactly like shopping on Black Friday," said the high school student from Dallas, who has been playing video games with his dad since he was five. "You show up early, you walk away with something good. You show up too late, you'll walk away with nothing." PLAYING IN A PANDEMIC Sony might have the edge, but the stakes are high for the Japanese company. Its gaming business is its biggest cash cow; in its fiscal 2019 the division, which includes hardware, software and services, brought in close to a quarter of its roughly $77 billion group sales and nearly 30% of its $7.9 billion operating profit.

Microsoft does not break out the results of gaming, though it's a smaller part of its business than for Sony. It also does not disclose hardware sales but the current Xbox One is estimated by analysts to have sold 50 million units.

For the other big hardware player, Japan's Nintendo , sticking to consoles is paying off with it hiking forecasts last week following elevated demand for its Switch.

The PS5 will retail at $499.99 or $399.99 for a digital-only version, while the Xbox Series X will sell for $499.99 and the lower-spec Series S for $299.99.

About 5 million PS5s are forecast to be sold this year, versus 3.9 million of the new Xboxes, according to media research firm Ampere, with combined sales expected to be higher than the previous generation.

"The pandemic is expected to transform the U.S. holiday shopping season," said Jason Benowitz, a senior portfolio manager at Roosevelt Investment Group. "Playing from home has become a way for some to safely socialize."

Sony's games depth is supported by in-house studios behind exclusives such as "Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales". By contrast the new Xbox, say games experts, will lack killer launch titles, with the latest in its flagship "Halo" series pushed back to next year as the pandemic hits development.

Cloud gaming growth could hand the US software giant an advantage in coming years, though. Although both companies have moved to offer services, Microsoft has been more aggressive.

Its Xbox Game Pass subscription service has grown rapidly; it offers more than 100 titles including brand-new games and has over 15 million users. Sony has been reluctant to make its hottest titles available on services like PlayStation Now, fearing this could cannibalise sales of big-budget games.

'DEMAND OUTSTRIPS SUPPLY'

The pandemic, while fueling some demand, has also constrained Sony and Microsoft's production, according to industry experts, who see shortages stretching into 2021.

"Demand will outstrip supply so there's going to be some people who won't get ahold of the console when they want to," said Piers Harding-Rolls, director of Ampere's games research.

Sony has announced that retailers like Walmart, Best Buy and Target will sell the PS5 exclusively online when it launches on Nov. 12, to prevent people from camping outside stores during a pandemic.

Walmart stands to sell as much as $1.1 billion worth of new consoles by the end of January, according to Wedbush. It dominates the U.S. market along with GameStop, each with a roughly 30% share, while sales of consoles at Target and Best Buy comprise about 15% apiece, the research firm said.

Target said it was working closely with its vendors to secure enough inventory. Some shoppers who had reserved consoles told Reuters that Target had said they may receive them days after the launch date.

Walmart said it would start selling the new consoles at launch but declined to comment on whether it would have enough stock to meet demand. Best Buy also declined to comment on whether it would be able to meet demand, while GameStop did not respond to requests for comment.

For DeAnthony Thicklin, a casino attendant who reserved his PS5 on Target.com in September, the priority is to get their hands on a console on the launch day itself.

The 25-year-old offered some advice.

"Have all your card information set up so the only thing you have to do is click," he said. "Don't hesitate. Be quick."

-reuters-

With PlayStation 5 launch, Sony needs a high score

TOKYO - Sony launches its PlayStation 5 console next week angling for a mega-hit, and with the Japanese firm increasingly dependent on the lucrative gaming sector there is little room for error.

The PlayStation 5 will enter a head-to-head battle with rival Microsoft's new Xbox, released two days earlier, with both hoping to capture the market in the run-up to Christmas.

But the showdown has significantly higher stakes for Sony.

Since the PS1 launched in 1994, gaming has become the biggest segment of Sony's business, generating the lion's share of profit and about a third of sales -- more than electronics products or music.

By comparison, gaming made up less than 10 percent of Microsoft's sales for the year ending in June 2020.

Sony sold twice as many PS4s as Microsoft did Xbox Ones, and analysts say it has learned lessons from the disappointing roll-out of the PS3.

"We have seen in previous generations that at launch there are two major factors that will impact a generation's success -- the first to launch and the cheapest," said Morris Garrard, an analyst at Futuresource Consulting.

He cited the "relative failure" of the PS3, which went on sale a year after the Xbox 360 and at a higher price.

The PS5 is priced at $500, like the Xbox Series X, while a version without a disk reader costs $400.

That's more than the $300 price tag for Microsoft's less powerful Xbox Series S, which also has no disk reader.

Sony's margin on the consoles will be slim -- possibly even loss-making -- analysts say, and the firm is counting on sales of games, services and online subscriptions to turn a profit.

GAMES 'MAKE OR BREAK' FOR PS5

So far, demand looks strong, and Sony has reportedly boosted production targets.

But meeting those will depend on suppliers, particularly TSMC, the Taiwanese firm that manufactures the PS5's processor and graphics-processing unit.

It is already under pressure as a key producer of chips for 5G-compatible smartphones.

"Whatever Sony produces, it will sell," said Yasuo Imanaka, an analyst at Rakuten Securities, who thinks PS5 could exceed the record 157 million PS2 units sold since the 2000 launch.

But "everything depends on what TSMC can supply", he told AFP.

To stand out against the Xbox, Sony will be counting on its games line-up, including exclusive titles that Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan says will "make or break" PS5.

Among its trump cards is "Spider-Man: Miles Morales", which will be released with the new console. Its predecessor is among the best selling PS4 titles.

The game was developed by the American studio Insomniac Games, which Sony bought last year for $229 million.

The purchase brought the number of studios Sony owns to 14, and represents a popular strategy of bringing increasingly expensive game development in-house.

Microsoft has made its own forays, buying ZeniMax in September for a record $7.5 billion.

'SHORT-TERM FOCUSED'

Despite the costs, Amir Anvarzadeh, a strategist at Asymmetric Advisors, said the trend makes sense given the risk of diminishing returns for console manufacturers on games produced by third-party developers.

Platform manufacturers charge games publishers a cut for each game sold for use on their device -- and nearly 70 percent of games sold for the PlayStation come from third-party developers.

But Sony and others are under pressure from publishers to slash that fee.

"If the royalty fees go down, they're in a lot of trouble because then they would have to sell twice as much hardware" to avoid a hit to their bottom line, Anvarzadeh said.

There are also fewer incentives now for studios to develop exclusive games, especially given the growing popularity of "cross-play", where gamers play one game together on different devices.

On top of bringing game development in-house, Microsoft has a subscription service that is broader than Sony's and gives users access to hundreds of Xbox and PC games.

Garrard said Sony continues to have several strong cards up its sleeve when it comes to PS5, and its "content portfolio, strength of consumer social networks and development of immersive tech... will all aid in encouraging consumer uptake of the hardware".

But he warned its focus on consoles risks being too fixated on short-term goals.

As well as its subscription model, Microsoft is investing heavily in streaming, also known as cloud gaming -- a strategy Garrard said "appears to be aimed at long-term dominance".

Agence France-Presse

LOOK: Sony unveils new DualSense controller for PlayStation 5

MANILA -- Sony has unveiled the controller for its forthcoming PlayStation 5 console, marking a departure from its previous DualShock pads.

Called DualSense, the new wireless controller complements PS5's Tempest 3D AudioTech engine with its haptic feedback feature and adaptive triggers in delivering "a new feeling of immersion" to players.

Hideaki Nishino, PlayStation's senior vice president for platform planning and management, said they have decided to "keep much of what gamers love about DualShock 4 intact, while also adding new functionality and refining the design."

"Based on our discussions with developers, we concluded that the sense of touch within gameplay, much like audio, hasn't been a big focus for many games. We had a great opportunity with PS5 to innovate by offering game creators the ability to explore how they can heighten that feeling of immersion through our new controller," he said in a post on the PlayStation blog.

"This is why we adopted haptic feedback, which adds a variety of powerful sensations you'll feel when you play, such as the slow grittiness of driving a car through mud," Nishino added. "We also incorporated adaptive triggers into the L2 and R2 buttons of DualSense so you can truly feel the tension of your actions, like when drawing a bow to shoot an arrow."

Sony adjusted the controller's grip and the angle of its hand triggers to make the DualSense "feel smaller than it looks."

Replacing the DualShock 4's "share" button is a "create" button which, Nishino said, will provide "new ways for players to create epic gameplay content to share with the world."

There is also an integrated microphone, and what appears to be a USB-C connector.

The DualShock 4's other features remain, but with light tweaks -- the PlayStation button is now cut in the actual shape of the PS logo, and the light bar has been moved to the sides of the touch pad.

Sony also went for a two-tone design for the DualSense, departing from its single-color base controllers.

The PlayStation 5 is slated for a Holiday 2020 launch, as confirmed by Sony Interactive Entertainment president and chief executive officer Jim Ryan.

"We look forward to sharing more information about PS5, including the console design, in the coming months," he said in a message posted by Nishino in his blog post.

source: news.abs-cbn.com