That’s one expensive disc drive
And it means PS3 will be one pricey console. CNET dissects the PS3 and compares the cost per component to Xbox 360.
FULL STORY:
Sony doesn’t officially comment on the price of the PS3, but there’s a healthy amount of educated guesses out there, and they’re all very expensive. Merrill Lynch’s highly publicized estimate put the cost at $800 — a little high, some say (or out of the park, says Sony). But either way, this baby is costly, and CNET breaks down why.
Turns out the big difference is the Blu-ray disc drive, which is brand new technology and way more expensive than the standard DVD drive the Xbox 360 uses. A regular DVD drive costs $20; the Blu-ray drive costs between $200 and $300. Whoa!
If you use the low-end figures for Cell ($150) and the Blu-ray drive ($200) the PS3 materials bill comes to $700. The high estimate, including a $230 chip and $300 drive, comes to $880. The average is $790. The Xbox 360, meanwhile, comes in at $476 through averaging prices from different analysts. A study from iSuppli puts the figure at $525.
Interesting stuff — the systems are almost exactly the same except for Blu-ray and the Cell processor. Unfortunately, those additions put PS3’s price way up there.
• PlayStation 3 component prices: Why so high? [CNET]