PS5 price: New PlayStation could be expensive despite Sony attempt to keep cost down, report claims

Company also said to be working on new version of PS VR headset

An attendee plays a video game on the PlayStation 4 video game console in the Sony Interactive Entertainment booth during the Tokyo Game Show 2018 on September 20, 2018 in Chiba, Japan (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

The new PlayStation could be substantially more expensive than the old one, a new report has suggested.

Sony is said to be trying to keep the cost of new console down, to compete both with its existing PlayStations and the Xbox Series X, which will be released around the same time.

But it is struggling to keep the price low because of the cost of the components inside, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

Sony has revealed that the new PlayStation will come with a variety of high-spec hardware, including a big and fast SSD for game storage. That will dramatically improve the speed of the console, allowing it to load games far more quickly than the existing PS4.

But such high-speed, high-capacity SSDs are expensive, and their price has varied wildly in recent months with the market.

The company is also said to be including large amounts of RAM as well as an advanced GPU, both of which can be very expensive.

That has led to troubles for Sony to keep the cost of the console down. The price of the materials inside the console is around $450 at the moment, according to the report.

That would compare to a $381 estimate for the price of the components required to make the PlayStation 4.

Sony sold the PS4 for $399 when it first came out, and it has been reduced since, suggesting that Sony could be comfortable with only thin margins on the console. But at the moment it would require either pushing up the price of the PS5, or selling it at a loss, both of which are likely to be difficult for Sony.

In the past, companies have sold consoles at a loss when they have launched, with the aim of making the money up from services and games as time goes on. The PS4 was priced more conservatively, in the hope of avoiding the costs racked up when the PS3 was launched at a very competitive price.

Sony is also working on a new version of the PlayStation VR headset, which is due to be released after the PS5, the same Bloomberg report claimed.