Hardware experts are optimistic over £400 price tag for the PlayStation 5

One of the biggest question marks over next year's release of the PlayStation 5 is its price tag.

We've already had some thoughts about precisely what Sony will is aiming for when it comes to the cost of the PS5 , but until the company comes out and announces it formally, that final figure is anyone's guess.

There are theories that because Sony will shift costs onto the new controller, the DualShock 5 , or soak up costs on a per-game basis by charging for modular SSD cart storage, the actual console itself will be relatively cheap.

With the PlayStation 5 targeting a release date of Holiday 2020 , many people are hoping that the hardware itself is going to be affordable – it's tricky enough making your money stretch that time of year as it is!

The good news is the hardware experts over at PCGamesN have done some research, and they think it's totally feasible that the PS5 will release around that £400 sweet spot.

In clear cut and well-communicated article, PCGamesN attempted to build a PC gaming system for $499 (which translates to just under £400 at the time of writing).

We won't go into the nitty gritty here – click through to the article if you want to see how the numbers work – but the TL;DR version of the article is this:

The PS5 will be a pretty powerful machine that Sony can manufacture for a pretty reasonable price.

"Even with my super optimistic future pricing calculations we’re looking at a nearly $600 PC build, with fewer cores than the PS5 and no (pointless) optical disk drive," writes PCGamesN.

"That does go to show the level of buying power Sony has with the level of sales it can guarantee with a new console. Sony can buy components for a lot less than we can… damn those economies of scale."

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Effectively, that means we can tentatively expect Sony to put the PS5 to market for around £400.

Considering Sony's last console, the PS4, cost $381 to make (as per this teardown ) and the tech giant put it on sale at a surprising $18 higher than cost, we could expect Sony to do the same again here.

After all, Sony isn't necessarily going to want to make the most money off initial PS5 sales – it's likely going to be more concerned with getting players on-board with the PS5 ecosystem to they can make money back with PS Plus and PS Now.

In a GamesIndustry.biz intervie, PlayStation CEO and President Jim Ryan Spoke about the explosive growth of PS Now , and how that's going to impact the future of the PlayStation 5 platform.

Sony offering players the chance to get onboard with the console for as little initial cash as possible will result in positives for the company and for gamers.

So we're hoping, when the announcement about price comes, Sony will announce a price tag under £400.