Why Sony Didn’t Bundle The Eye With The PS4
The Xbox One certainly has its problems, but one of its biggest weaknesses is the fact that it’s $100 more expensive. The fact is, the Xbox One and PS4 both have similar hardware, with the biggest different being the fact that the Xbox One comes with a Kinect in every box. But believe it or not, Sony also thought about pairing up their Eye camera in the same way!
So what stopped them? It’s simple: money. Sony wanted to be sure to get the PS4 out at a $399 price point, while at the same time minimizing losses on each console sold. While Sony could have slapped an Eye in each box and sold it for $399, they’d end up taking a huge hit just to add something that they’re not going to fully focus on.
Sony Computer Entertainment president Andrew House had this to say about why they’re downplaying the Eye’s importance at launch: “Certainly for the earlier part of the lifecycle, the vast majority of the audience that we speak to tells us that their primary wish is for the full controller interface and there’s not necessarily a huge emphasis being placed on camera interaction.” Of course, once things settle down for a bit after launch I’d expect Sony to really start hitting on all the benefits the Eye will have on the system.
