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Next-gen game consoles from Sony and Microsoft can't cost over $400 – Business Insider – Business Insider

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5 years ago

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  • This holiday, the next-generation Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox video game consoles are scheduled to arrive.
  • Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X are largely known quantities at this point, except for one major detail: Price.
  • The PlayStation 5 could cost nearly $500, sources within the company told Bloomberg, due to manufacturing costs and parts.
  • More than just a high price, the history of video game console pricing dictates that charging over $400 for a new game console is likely to result in a sales flop.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Next-generation video game consoles from Sony and Microsoft – the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, respectively – are scheduled to arrive this holiday season.

Though much is known about each console, there’s still one major question: How much will the two new consoles cost?

Neither company has said as much officially, but Sony’s PlayStation 5 has a potential price tag: At least $470, and maybe more, according to sources within Sony speaking to Bloomberg.

That price, which is reportedly due to a scarcity of certain components, could be a big mistake. Historically speaking, most video game consoles cost $400 or less. The ones that cost more than $400 tend to struggle – meaning that if Sony were to go that route, that high price could cost it the next big battle with Xbox in the console wars.

Take Sony’s PlayStation 3, for example: In 2006, Sony launched the PlayStation 3 as a follow up to its wildly successful PlayStation 2.

Foto: Sony launched the PlayStation 3 in 2006 with a base price of $500 and a premium version that cost $600.sourceSony

The Japanese consumer electronics giant was riding high on the landmark success of its prior console, and set the price of its new PlayStation higher than ever before: The base model would cost $500, and a premium model with more storage would cost $600.

When the PlayStation 3 launched in November 2006, it arrived alongside a wave of criticism from consumers and game makers alike. Consumers didn’t like the notoriously high price of the console, and game makers didn’t like the complexity of making games for the PS3, which used a non-traditional „Cell“ processor instead of the more familiar architecture used by Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

„I’m getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don’t make it easy for me to support the platform,“ Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said in a June 2009 interview, two years after the PS3 launched. „It’s expensive to develop for the console, and the [Nintendo] Wii and the Xbox [360] are just selling better.“

The PlayStation 3’s reception looked especially bad by comparison with the competition: Nintendo’s Wii was at peak popularity, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was a runaway success despite requiring a $1 billion recall program in the wake of the so-called „Red Ring of Death“ scandal.

It took years for Sony to make up some of the ground it lost to competition from Microsoft and Nintendo, after lowering the price of the PlayStation 3 and bolstering the console’s game library. By the time the PlayStation 4 launched in 2013, Sony had ingested the lessons of the PlayStation 3’s failures.

The cost of the PlayStation 4? $400.

Microsoft makes its own mistake

Microsoft, however, was about to make its own major pricing mistake with the Xbox One.

Xbox One price announcement

Foto: Microsoft’s Xbox One launched at $500 in the US in November 2013.sourceMicrosoft

In June 2013, Xbox leader Phil Spencer told attendees of Microsoft’s annual Xbox briefing that the forthcoming Xbox One would cost a whopping $500 at launch.

The reason for the notably high price was clear: Every Xbox One console came with the Kinect, its groundbreaking camera/microphone accessory.

The peripheral, which started life on the previous generation Xbox 360 consoles and found massive success as a standalone device, was upgraded for the Xbox One and included with every console. Microsoft envisioned a future where Xbox One owners would use Kinect to turn on their consoles with their voice, then play games using the motion camera.

In reality, it just meant that Microsoft’s console was more expensive than Sony’s $400 PlayStation 4 – a console which launched at almost exactly the same time in November 2013.

Microsoft hastily beat a retreat on pricing, and officially turned Kinect into an optional add-on less than a year later. „There’s a lot about Kinect that I really love,“ Spencer said in a video released alongside the news. „We’ve also heard from people that they just like to play games with a controller in their hand.“

But the damage was already done: Microsoft’s Xbox One sales numbers trailed Sony’s PlayStation 4 sales numbers for the entirety of the current console generation. Sony says that it has sold over 100 million PlayStation 4 consoles at last count. Meanwhile, Microsoft stopped reporting sales numbers outright – though in January 2019, an analyst pegged Xbox One sales at 41 million.

Xbox Series X

Foto: Microsoft’s next-gen console, the Xbox Series X.sourceMicrosoft

X-factor

With both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, pricing remains a major unknown.

One thing is clear from what we know so far: Both the new consoles are unlikely to cost below $400 based solely on what we know about the components inside.

„I previously estimated the build cost of [Xbox] Series X would be higher at over $460 minimum, and still expect that to be the case,“ Niko Partners video game industry analyst Daniel Ahmad said last week in a series of tweets.

In short, that means the price of components and manufacturing the next Xbox could be as much as $460. And if that’s the cost of creating each box, it stands to reason that Microsoft would price the console higher than the cost of production.

„A $450 build cost would probably result in a retail price close to $500,“ Ahmad said. „I think at this point it’s unrealistic to assume we’ll get a high end console at $399 like last gen.“

There’s one caveat, of course: Both Microsoft and Sony could be willing to take a loss on each console sold, at least initially, in order to establish a foothold with early adopters. In theory, if they went this route, the blow would be at least softened by the manufacturers‘ cut of game sales, microtransactions, and premium services like Xbox Live and PlayStation Plus.

„Both manufacturers could be willing to take a loss day one to price more competitively,“ Ahmad said.

For now, however, we’ll have to wait and see as neither Sony nor Microsoft is saying how much their new game consoles will cost.

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The Internet is Littered in ‘Educated Guesses’ Without the ‘Education’

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1 week ago

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October 8, 2024

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Although no one likes a know-it-all, they dominate the Internet.

The Internet began as a vast repository of information. It quickly became a breeding ground for self-proclaimed experts seeking what most people desire: recognition and money.

Today, anyone with an Internet connection and some typing skills can position themselves, regardless of their education or experience, as a subject matter expert (SME). From relationship advice, career coaching, and health and nutrition tips to citizen journalists practicing pseudo-journalism, the Internet is awash with individuals—Internet talking heads—sharing their “insights,” which are, in large part, essentially educated guesses without the education or experience.

The Internet has become a 24/7/365 sitcom where armchair experts think they’re the star.

Not long ago, years, sometimes decades, of dedicated work and acquiring education in one’s field was once required to be recognized as an expert. The knowledge and opinions of doctors, scientists, historians, et al. were respected due to their education and experience. Today, a social media account and a knack for hyperbole are all it takes to present oneself as an “expert” to achieve Internet fame that can be monetized.

On the Internet, nearly every piece of content is self-serving in some way.

The line between actual expertise and self-professed knowledge has become blurry as an out-of-focus selfie. Inadvertently, social media platforms have created an informal degree program where likes and shares are equivalent to degrees. After reading selective articles, they’ve found via and watching some TikTok videos, a person can post a video claiming they’re an herbal medicine expert. Their new “knowledge,” which their followers will absorb, claims that Panda dung tea—one of the most expensive teas in the world and isn’t what its name implies—cures everything from hypertension to existential crisis. Meanwhile, registered dietitians are shaking their heads, wondering how to compete against all the misinformation their clients are exposed to.

More disturbing are individuals obsessed with evangelizing their beliefs or conspiracy theories. These people write in-depth blog posts, such as Elvis Is Alive and the Moon Landings Were Staged, with links to obscure YouTube videos, websites, social media accounts, and blogs. Regardless of your beliefs, someone or a group on the Internet shares them, thus confirming your beliefs.

Misinformation is the Internet’s currency used to get likes, shares, and engagement; thus, it often spreads like a cosmic joke. Consider the prevalence of clickbait headlines:

  • You Won’t Believe What Taylor Swift Says About Climate Change!
  • This Bedtime Drink Melts Belly Fat While You Sleep!
  • In One Week, I Turned $10 Into $1 Million!

Titles that make outrageous claims are how the content creator gets reads and views, which generates revenue via affiliate marketing, product placement, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Clickbait headlines are how you end up watching a TikTok video by a purported nutrition expert adamantly asserting you can lose belly fat while you sleep by drinking, for 14 consecutive days, a concoction of raw eggs, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar 15 minutes before going to bed.

Our constant search for answers that’ll explain our convoluted world and our desire for shortcuts to success is how Internet talking heads achieve influencer status. Because we tend to seek low-hanging fruits, we listen to those with little experience or knowledge of the topics they discuss yet are astute enough to know what most people want to hear.

There’s a trend, more disturbing than spreading misinformation, that needs to be called out: individuals who’ve never achieved significant wealth or traded stocks giving how-to-make-easy-money advice, the appeal of which is undeniable. Several people I know have lost substantial money by following the “advice” of Internet talking heads.

Anyone on social media claiming to have a foolproof money-making strategy is lying. They wouldn’t be peddling their money-making strategy if they could make easy money.

Successful people tend to be secretive.

Social media companies design their respective algorithms to serve their advertisers—their source of revenue—interest; hence, content from Internet talking heads appears most prominent in your feeds. When a video of a self-professed expert goes viral, likely because it pressed an emotional button, the more people see it, the more engagement it receives, such as likes, shares and comments, creating a cycle akin to a tornado.

Imagine scrolling through your TikTok feed and stumbling upon a “scientist” who claims they can predict the weather using only aluminum foil, copper wire, sea salt and baking soda. You chuckle, but you notice his video got over 7,000 likes, has been shared over 600 times and received over 400 comments. You think to yourself, “Maybe this guy is onto something.” What started as a quest to achieve Internet fame evolved into an Internet-wide belief that weather forecasting can be as easy as DIY crafts.

Since anyone can call themselves “an expert,” you must cultivate critical thinking skills to distinguish genuine expertise from self-professed experts’ self-promoting nonsense. While the absurdity of the Internet can be entertaining, misinformation has serious consequences. The next time you read a headline that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably an Internet talking head making an educated guess; without the education seeking Internet fame, they can monetize.

______________________________________________________________

 

Nick Kossovan, a self-described connoisseur of human psychology, writes about what’s

on his mind from Toronto. You can follow Nick on Twitter and Instagram @NKossovan.

 

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Tight deadlines on software projects can put safety at risk: survey

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1 week ago

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October 8, 2024

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TORONTO – A new survey says a majority of software engineers and developers feel tight project deadlines can put safety at risk.

Seventy-five per cent of the 1,000 global workers who responded to the survey released Tuesday say pressure to deliver projects on time and on budget could be compromising critical aspects like safety.

The concern is even higher among engineers and developers in North America, with 77 per cent of those surveyed on the continent reporting the urgency of projects could be straining safety.

The study was conducted between July and September by research agency Coleman Parkes and commissioned by BlackBerry Ltd.’s QNX division, which builds connected-car technology.

The results reflect a timeless tug of war engineers and developers grapple with as they balance the need to meet project deadlines with regulations and safety checks that can slow down the process.

Finding that balance is an issue that developers of even the simplest appliances face because of advancements in technology, said John Wall, a senior vice-president at BlackBerry and head of QNX.

“The software is getting more complicated and there is more software whether it’s in a vehicle, robotics, a toaster, you name it… so being able to patch vulnerabilities, to prevent bad actors from doing malicious acts is becoming more and more important,” he said.

The medical, industrial and automotive industries have standardized safety measures and anything they produce undergoes rigorous testing, but that work doesn’t happen overnight. It has to be carried out from the start and then at every step of the development process.

“What makes safety and security difficult is it’s an ongoing thing,” Wall said. “It’s not something where you’ve done it, and you are finished.”

The Waterloo, Ont.-based business found 90 per cent of its survey respondents reported that organizations are prioritizing safety.

However, when asked about why safety may not be a priority for their organization, 46 per cent of those surveyed answered cost pressures and 35 per cent said a lack of resources.

That doesn’t surprise Wall. Delays have become rampant in the development of tech, and in some cases, stand to push back the launch of vehicle lines by two years, he said.

“We have to make sure that people don’t compromise on safety and security to be able to get products out quicker,” he said.

“What we don’t want to see is people cutting corners and creating unsafe situations.”

The survey also took a peek at security breaches, which have hit major companies like London Drugs, Indigo Books & Music, Giant Tiger and Ticketmaster in recent years.

About 40 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they have encountered a security breach in their employer’s operating system. Those breaches resulted in major impacts for 27 per cent of respondents, moderate impacts for 42 per cent and minor impacts for 27 per cent.

“There are vulnerabilities all the time and this is what makes the job very difficult because when you ship the software, presumably the software has no security vulnerabilities, but things get discovered after the fact,” Wall said.

Security issues, he added, have really come to the forefront of the problems developers face, so “really without security, you have no safety.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BB)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Beware of scams during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days sales event: cybersecurity firm

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1 week ago

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October 8, 2024

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As online shoppers hunt for bargains offered by Amazon during its annual fall sale this week, cybersecurity researchers are warning Canadians to beware of an influx of scammers posing as the tech giant.

In the 30 days leading up to Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, taking place Tuesday and Wednesday, there were more than 1,000 newly registered Amazon-related web domains, according to Check Point Software Technologies, a company that offers cybersecurity solutions.

The company said it deemed 88 per cent of those domains malicious or suspicious, suggesting they could have been set up by scammers to prey on vulnerable consumers. One in every 54 newly created Amazon-related domain included the phrase “Amazon Prime.”

“They’re almost indiscernible from the real Amazon domain,” said Robert Falzon, head of engineering at Check Point in Canada.

“With all these domains registered that look so similar, it’s tricking a lot of people. And that’s the whole intent here.”

Falzon said Check Point Research sees an uptick in attempted scams around big online shopping days throughout the year, including Prime Days.

Scams often come in the form of phishing emails, which are deceptive messages that appear to be from a reputable source in attempt to steal sensitive information.

In this case, he said scammers posing as Amazon commonly offer “outrageous” deals that appear to be associated with Prime Days, in order to trick recipients into clicking on a malicious link.

The cybersecurity firm said it has identified and blocked 100 unique Amazon Prime-themed scam emails targeting organizations and consumers over the past two weeks.

Scammers also target Prime members with unsolicited calls, claiming urgent account issues and requesting payment information.

“It’s like Christmas for them,” said Falzon.

“People expect there to be significant savings on Prime Day, so they’re not shocked that they see something of significant value. Usually, the old adage applies: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

Amazon’s website lists a number of red flags that it recommends customers watch for to identify a potential impersonation scam.

Those include false urgency, requests for personal information, or indications that the sender prefers to complete the purchase outside of the Amazon website or mobile app.

Scammers may also request that customers exclusively pay with gift cards, a claim code or PIN. Any notifications about an order or delivery for an unexpected item should also raise alarm bells, the company says.

“During busy shopping moments, we tend to see a rise in impersonation scams reported by customers,” said Amazon spokeswoman Octavia Roufogalis in a statement.

“We will continue to invest in protecting consumers and educating the public on scam avoidance. We encourage consumers to report suspected scams to us so that we can protect their accounts and refer bad actors to law enforcement to help keep consumers safe.”

Falzon added that these scams are more successful than people might think.

As of June 30, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said there had been $284 million lost to fraud so far this year, affecting 15,941 victims.

But Falzon said many incidents go unreported, as some Canadians who are targeted do not know how or where to flag a scam, or may choose not to out of embarrassment.

Check Point recommends Amazon customers take precautions while shopping on Prime Days, including by checking URLs carefully, creating strong passwords on their accounts, and avoiding personal information being shared such as their birthday or social security number.

The cybersecurity company said consumers should also look for “https” at the beginning of a website URL, which indicates a secure connection, and use credit cards rather than debit cards for online shopping, which offer better protection and less liability if stolen.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.

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