It's not an amazing thing. Sony loses huges amount of money on selling hardware. The console has never been a profit driver for Sony, M$ or Nintendo.
They make their money in software, accessory and subscription sales.
Exactly. It's a false comparison. If they actually had to sell the PS5 Pro at typical PC hardware mark-up levels, then the cost comparison would make more sense.
Right now buyers of consoles get the "expensive inkjet printer cartridge" experience. Sure you get a "cheap" console below cost, but then you have to pay for subscriptions, more expensive games, etc. etc.
Over the lifetime of the console, an equivalent PC is a much better deal.
Consoles are just a way to screw over the ignorant.
That said, even at the $700 pricepoint, I might be able to get pretty close, if I shop around, even with new hardware.
An AMD RX 7700 should probably roughly tie the PS5 Pro. ($389)
Then I could get the cheapest CPU+Mobo bundle at Microcenter. $259 buys you a 3-way combo right now with an i5-12600KF, MSI Z790-P Pro WiFi and 16GB DDR4 (
that's a pretty insane deal btw.)
With those 4 main components out of the way I have spent $648.
To be fair, it will be pretty tough to get a drive, case, power supply, cooler and case fans for the remaining $52, but if I am allowed a handful of spare pre-existing parts (and/or used ones) it is totally possible.
But to re-iterate, based on initial purchase price only, the PS5 Pro is indeed a pretty good deal for the performance you get, because they sell it at a loss. Too bad that's not where the costs end.
