So, since so much of this thread revolves around the price and possible price cuts for the Xbone, can we discuss/speculate PS4 pricing strategy?
I'm going to preface here by saying: I actually have
no idea what Sony's strategy would or should look like at this point. Not to belittle their efforts, but they've basically had everything they could ask for fall into their lap thus far; to be honest, their logistics have been the only outstanding display in terms of their efforts, with most of their advertising and PR being very by-the-numbers stuff. They've basically just been kicking back and watching the comedy of errors from the opposing camp.
Is there room to maneuver for the Sony? In either case, what are the possible reactions from Sony in the event of a price cut for the xbone? What would be the best thing to do given that Sony doesn't want to haemorrhage cash and should still want to main or grow their lead?
There is. An important consideration: PS+ is growing massively in popularity, and represents a new income stream that effectively increases the profit margin of every box. This is effectively new revenue for the division, because PS+ was hugely less popular last generation and could not be counted on as adding value after sale to a significant percentage of boxes sold.
The fact that the PlayStation division can show corporate their huge up-tick in PS+ subscriptions means that they can reason for a PS4 price drop earlier than they would otherwise be able to, on the basis that the increase in PS+ subscribers will ultimately make up the difference in six months time.
This is assuming they want to price cut ahead of schedule ("schedule" being in terms of a "natural" price cut due to economics of scale and reduced price of components actually making the console cheaper to produce). They might want to take a different approach, such as offering free PS+ subscriptions to try and further drive adoption of the service, since the top-level corporate managers are probably salivating over the thought of having a reliable, steady revenue stream emerging from this.