Andre Yoskowitz
19 Nov 2013 20:05
According to research firm IHS iSuppli, Sony may be eking out a small profit on PlayStation 4 hardware sales.
After performing a teardown and cost analysis on the new console, the company says the component and cost of assembly breaks down to about $381. The electronics giant sells the console for $399. The analysis does not include R&D, marketing and shipping costs, which more than likely could add up to $15 per console, leaving Sony with a tiny profit margin per hardware unit sold.
Most of the cost comes from the AMD-designed APU and the 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, which clock in at $100 and $88. The 500GB HDD cost $37, the Blu-ray drive cost $28 and the new Dualshock 4 controller costs $18.
This entire situation should be a relief to Sony, who took a bath on the PS3 for years before the manufacturing process got cheap enough for them to make a profit. At its launch, Sony sold the PS3 for $599 but it was coting them about $800 to build due to its proprietary Cell processor and the (at the time) brand new Blu-ray drive.