Sony says PS5 will focus on ‘best possible value,’ not necessarily ‘lowest price’

One of the biggest uncertainties currently surrounding the PlayStation 5 is in regards to how much the next-gen console will actually cost.

While a price still has yet to be confirmed, comments made by Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan during a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz might help set some expectations.

According to Ryan, it’s most important to Sony that the PS5 offers the “best possible value proposition,” which “[doesn’t] necessarily mean lowest price.” This suggests that Microsoft’s next-gen console, the Xbox Series X, may cost less than the PS5. However, Microsoft hasn’t yet specified a price for the Series X, either, so this is still remains to be seen.

“Value is a combination of many things,” said Ryan in regards to the PS5. “In our area it means games, it means number of games, depth of games, breadth of games, quality of games, price of games… all of these things and how they avail themselves of the feature set of the platform.”

Ryan didn’t elaborate on any of this, although he did address speculation that the COVID-19 pandemic could disrupt PlayStation’s plans for the console this year.

“We, and our partners, seem to be coping really well,” Ryan told GameIndustry.biz. “And so we are on track. We are going to launch this holiday and we’re going to launch globally.” In a separate BBC interview, Ryan also confirmed that the COVID-19 pandemic has not changed Sony’s pricing plans for the PS5.

To that point, Ryan noted in the GamesIndustry.biz interview that “recent history has told us that gaming is one of the pastimes, and one of the businesses, that benefits in economically difficult times.” That said, he conceded that “the historic templates, the historic models, that have applied in the past may not apply in the future,” given the ever-changing global health crisis.

For now, Sony plans to hold a major digital event on June 4th to unveil a suite of PlayStation 5 games. It’s unclear whether pricing or even the look of the console will be revealed during this event. However, Sony did mention that it will be the first in a series of PS5 updates over the coming weeks.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz, BBC