Sony UK’s MD Fergal Gara recently spoke to GamesIndustry International about the PlayStation 4’s pricing and stated that the console will be available in both Europe and US by Christmas, even if a specific retail date is still wanting. The price was also a considered effort for seven years, not a knee jerk decision in the last days and weeks.”
“Quite simply we don’t want to over promise and under deliver. We’re not in mass manufacture right now so it’s impossible to be absolutely precise. I’m confident we’ll have very significant stocks for the UK and absolutely delighted we’re going to launch before Christmas.”
As for whether the PS4 will be profitable out of the gate (since the PS3 took heavy losses in the previous generation when trying to cut prices), Gara stated that, “There’s no point in looking at the console in isolation,” Gara said. “Is PlayStation going to be a profitable business? It needs to be and it intends to be a profitable business over the next year.
“The balance of everything we do, whether that’s the console, the software, the accessories or the digital business, it all needs to be profitable and we expect it to be profitable in the short term and the medium term.”