A new report from research firm IHS has estimated that Sony’s PlayStation 4 cost the company $381 dollars to producer, with its analysis looking at the cost of each component separately. While the AMD CPU is $100, the memory chips are $88 and the Seagate hard drive is $37. The wireless Marvell and Skyworks chips and Blu-ray all cost around $28. The DualShock 4 controller meanwhile cost $18 to build due to incorporating motion sensors from Bosch, Qualcomm Bluetooth and Wolfson audio chips. Consider that when you see the $60 asking price next time.
IHS analyst Andrew Rassweiler stated that, “This [350 square millimeter chip] is just gigantic. It’s almost three times as big as the next biggest chip we’ve seen.”
The PS3 roughly cost $805 to build according to IHS and retailed for $599. The PS4 on the other hand will retail for $399, making for an $18 price difference in production. While IHS estimates that Sony’s profits will come from games, there’s no denying that the company is in a far better position in concerns to production costs with the PS4.
The PS4 is set to launch on November 29th in Europe and is currently available in North America. If you’re curious about other components residing in the PS4, head here.