You are wrong! Articles reporting on the issue kept mixing it up but the original source (Bloomberg) specified 5 million produced by end of september and 10 million by end of december.Well, not to be a grammar nazi here but if the article stated 10 million produced by the end of december that would align with 10 million shipped by march. a unit fresh off the conveyor belt in china won't count as part of the quarter's shipment. i may be off but I don't think sony can take credit for shipped until the customer receives their product. ...as in it's still not technically shipped during the 4 weeks its on a boat in the middle of the pacific en route to america or whatever its going. but it is "shipped" while the unit is in transit from walmart's central distribution centers to individual walmarts for resale.
You're right they'd definitely have been considering it for a long time but it could be that they were thinking not to do a discless version or at least not at launch, then the covid situation tipped them over the edge and made them decide to do it for launch. They need to capitalise on the uptick in the industry with a more accessible price point.
Anyway, back on price that $450 BOM leak we got from Bloomberg seemed very reliable with Zhuge backing it up as well and prices seem to have gone down since then. Given that, $550+ would be selling at a profit and we know Sony will take a loss, so that's not happening. If the BOM leak is right, $550/$500 is the upper bound for both editions and even that would be a profit on HW for Sony.
i am fully in agreement with you here. those declaring $600 clearly don't grasp the every playstation and xbox product to-date has sold at a loss at launch. some bigger than others obviously but a $50 loss is nothing in this business,.. i believe ps3 was a $300 loss. a BoM of $450 does not translate to an expected MSRP of $600. that's just silly given generations of evidence to the contrary. it's part of why i vastly prefer consoles to pc. ease of use,.. of course. but a gaming pc is stupidly expensive compared to consoles even if you add in 7 years of ps+. i mean for ducks sake, that RTX 3080 everyone is gushing about being a console killer is $700...
