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Sony likely saved about $15 by not including a UHD drive in PS4 Pro.

S

SURGEdude

Member
Posted in another topic but figured it was thread worthy.

According to IHS when comparing the price of the regular BR drive to the UHD the difference is only$15.50 more comparing the XB1 and the slim. Assuming Sony's price is the same (would likey be lower) they decided it wasn't worth dropping $15 to give you a 4K device that offers non-suboptimal image quality.

IHS Teardown said:
The new console also includes a UHD BD-ROM player, with a bill of materials (BOM) cost of $33.50, versus the previous $18 conventional Blu-Ray drive.
Click to expand...

#4theshareholders indeed.
 
goldenpp72

goldenpp72

Member
To be fair, 15 dollars times 20 million units is a lot of lost revenue if you know the users won't be bothering. I don't have sales data and projections for 4k BR though..
 
J

JustenP88

I earned 100 Gamerscore™ for collecting 300 widgets and thereby created Trump's America
Ok...

Personally wouldn't have moved the needle for me if they did have it. Not going to lose my shit because it's not there.
 
T

The God

Member
latest
 
S

Snaku

Banned
goldenpp72 said:
To be fair, 15 dollars times 20 million units is a lot of lost revenue if you know the users won't be bothering. I don't have sales data and projections for 4k BR though..
Click to expand...

They could've bumped PS+ price up $15 instead of $10 to cover it.
 
O

Orayn

Member
The effective cost is probably a bit more than that since there's also a royalty to the Blu-Ray forum. Still a terrible decision not to include it, though.
 
Xenoflare

Xenoflare

Member
We need an estimate on how much the pro costs for building.

IIRC the 2TB XB1S costs 324 dollars for MS per unit.

We are likely in the dark for this until it releases.
 
R

RPGam3r

Member
SURGEdude said:
Posted in another topic but figured it was thread worthy.

According to IHS when comparing the price of the regular BR drive to the UHD the difference is only$15.50 more comparing the XB1 and the slim. Assuming Sony's price is the same (would likey be lower) they decided it wasn't worth dropping $15 to give you a 4K device that offers non-suboptimal image quality.



#4theshareholders indeed.
Click to expand...

Hashtag makes no sense since "for the players" still applies as watching films has nothing to do with playing games.
 
T

The_Inquisitor

Member
It's not just 15 dollars/unit. It's more money in terms of qualifying the new drive for the system. Being able to re-use a similar component reduces development cost and cycle time. November launch reflects this.
 
D

Dunlop

Member
Unknown Soldier said:
I'll be saving the $400 on not buying one, I hope the math works out for Sony
Click to expand...

lol

I was 100% sure I was trading in my XB1 and PS4 for a Neo before the announcement as my family only uses the PS4 (my ultimatum of only paying one online fee might have been a factor....)

Now I don't know what to do ; (
 
P

potatohead

Member
Unknown Soldier said:
I'll be saving the $400 on not buying one, I hope the math works out for Sony
Click to expand...
It probably does actually.

Let's say $150 per console is pure profit, if they miss one sale because of it, they have to sell 10 consoles to make up that difference in pure profit. Which is not a lot.

So they're likely betting much fewer than 1/10 people will care who are interested in buying PS4 Pro. Which is probably the case anyway.
 
V

Vincent Alexander

Member
Meh. I don't give a shit about Scorpio, and after today I officially don't give a shit about PS4 Pro. Not because of UHD by itself. Just not a fan of these mid-generation new consoles.

The world keeps on turning for me without either of them.
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
I guess they figured not many people are buying Ultra HD Blu-Rays yet. Which is true as far as I know.... but still you want to have the newest thing in your new machine.
 
O

Other

Member
That's a lot of money over how ever many million units will be sold for what is likely to be a underused niche feature
 
S

SURGEdude

Member
Orayn said:
The effective cost is probably a bit more than that since there's also a royalty to the Blu-Ray forum. Still a terrible decision not to include it, though.
Click to expand...

The effective cost would be marginally higher. But Sony is a member of the patent pool and I believe the single largest holder of patents on BR and UHD BR. The rate would be very low.
 
P

Piston Hyundai

Member
Did you ever consider that they're passing the savings onto you by ignoring movies and television? It's 4 the Players and not 4 the Watchers, you fucking ingrates.
 
M

MUnited83

For you.
THEBONDIGTY said:
Who cares about Blu rays the future is digital
Click to expand...

If you go on a time machine and go 20 years into the future, maybe. But digital is nowhere even remotely near the quality of Blu-Rays, and it won't reach it for a long, long, loooooooong time.

Toki767 said:
So why are UHD players $300 if a drive amounts to like $34?
Click to expand...

It's 34$ if you're a huge corporation buying several millions of the things at once.
 
bryanee

bryanee

Member
the_batman said:
what about the future when games are put on UHD discs?
Click to expand...

Well I'm sure in the future when the PS5 comes out and has a UHD player it'll be fine because you're not getting UHD game discs during this gen so its a none issue in that regard.
 
Sota4077

Sota4077

Member
My guess is that it wasn't about saving enough money to reach the $399 price point. It was about trimming down the losses they may already be taking on the console. I dunno, that is just my theory. But then again from all indications the hardware inside is largely the same just upclocked so I really don't even understand the reasoning for the PS4 Pro existing. Why would they not go for a larger leap?
 
D

DjRalford

Member
Toki767 said:
So why are UHD players $300 if a drive amounts to like $34?
Click to expand...

Likely because a UHD player isn't just a disk drive.

As an example, go buy a dvd drive for a PC, now use it without connecting it to the PC, doesn't work does it, it needs a board, decoders, ethernet etc to get it all to run along with the interface software.
 
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