PS4 Price and Xbox One Price Rumors: Game Consoles To Go For $349 and $399

An Investment firm known as Wedbush Morgan suggested the PlayStation4 will debut with a retail price in the U.S. of $349, a significant decrease from its predecessor's price tag of $599 upon its release. Analysts put its competitor's price at $399.

In an E3 preview note to investors, noted analyst Michael Pachter estimates the actual hardware cost of both devices to be $275 for the PlayStation 4 and $325 for the Xbox One. As a result, both Pachter and Wedbush are setting the price tags in that range according to Industry International.

"We believe the ability to watch live TV from a cable, telco, or satellite set-top box through Xbox One could entice an MSO to drive subscriptions through a subsidised box in exchange for a multi-year contract," Pachter said. "The 'always connected' requirement for the Xbox One likely means that a broadband connection will be required, suggesting to us that ISPs may have an incentive to offer a subsidy as well."

According to the International Digital Times, predictions fall in line with noted Microsoft blogger Paul Thurrott who predicted earlier this year a release price of about $500 for the Xbox One. However, he added that the company might sell it for $300 but require a two-year contract with Xbox Live or a deal with Skype premium. This would help subsidize the price of the new console.

Theoretically PlayStation could pull a similar move and offer users deals with the new console and acces to the PlayStation Network. However, Pachter makes the point that Sony and PlayStation do not have a history of doing this the way the Microsoft and Xbox do.

The prices are drastically different than some previous price numbers that were leaked on Amazon in the UK and Germany. This comes as a relief to many fans of each console who found the Amazon bundle prices to be a bit too steep for their taste.