Speaking to Bloomberg in video interview (transcribed by GameSpot), Sony UK managing director Fergal Gara has stated that, “The economics of PS4 are far closer to the economics of PS2 than they are to PS3.”
This comes off recent tear-downs which indicate that the console costs $381 to manufacture, compared to its $399 retail price. In comparison, the PS3 cost $840 to manufacture when it was released in 2006 and retailed for $599, making for a very significant loss.
“So if you consider with PS3, it was a highly bespoke architecture; it was expensive to make. And we weren’t making money on many of those devices, even at a high price point. With PS4 we come at it at a very lean price point and our economics will be far, far favorable to the PS3. So that is a job to be commended really for the internal team and of course it’s done with the gamer in mind.”
The PlayStation 4 is currently set to launch tomorrow in Europe.