The PlayStation 4 is set to appear on shelves starting on Nov. 15, and one of the main selling points is the fact that, at $400, the PlayStation 4 is $100 less than the Xbox One. In an interview with Business Spectator Sony Computer Entertainment president Andrew House revealed how the company was able the achieve the competitive price point: Sony scrapped plans to include the PlayStation Eye Camera with the PlayStation 4.
House justified leaving out the device by stating that Sony's research indicated that users buying the console so early in the life cycle do not necessarily want motion controls and other functions featured on the PlayStation Eye:
"Certainly for the earlier part of the lifecycle, the vast majority of the audience that we speak to tells us that their primary wish is for the full controller interface and there's not necessarily a huge emphasis being placed on camera interaction," he told Business Spectator.
It should be noted that some bundles offered in different regions will have the PlayStation Eye included with the PlayStation 4, and every PlayStation 4 regardless if it comes with the camera will have the PlayRoom augmented reality game installed in the console.
Sony considered bundling the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation Eye camera together, but the $400 price is considered the "magic price" for the console, according to Sony's Masayasu, and selling both devices together at that price would have made Sony's losses on the hardware too much for the company to handle. It is rumored that even without the PlayStation Eye camera Sony is losing around $60 per PlayStation 4 console. However, if thats accurate, the company likely hopes sales of software and other accessories for the PlayStation 4 will make up for the loss.
House also discussed the PlayStation 3, and he noted that the console will have a long life after the PlayStation 4 launch due to the features it already has installed and the price being attractive to emerging markets:
"I don't define the end of the lifecycle as the point at which you introduce a new console, not when you are actually still enjoying substantial sales of the previous generation...One of the advantages of managing lifecycles is that you can offer different value propositions in different markets. The later third of the PlayStation 2's lifecycle was more or less dominated by emerging markets where software value proposition and the initial console price made for an easy entry device. I would envisage that we would look to manage the PlayStation 3 and 4 in a similar way."