Research firm IHS has been hard at work tearing down both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One in order to determine how much it costs to build each machine. While the official report for the Xbox One hasn’t been made available yet, the results were shared with AllThingsD, who revealed that the console costs about $471 to build, including the Kinect. That’s about $90 more expensive than the PlayStation 4 to build, so it makes sense that the console is more expensive.
In terms of cost breakdown for the console, $75 of the cost is dedicated to the Kinect, including its motion-sensors and cameras. According to the IHS analyst who did the teardown, the biggest cost is from the microprocessor from AMD, ringing in at around $110. That’s $10 more than the chip used in the PS4 and is the single most expensive component inside the Xbox One.
The entire breakdown for the cost of the Xbox One is as follows:
- Kinect – $75
- AMD processor – $110
- DDR3 memory – $60
- Various parts – $139
- Controller – $15
- External power supply – $25
- Headset – $10
- Cost to build – $14
According to IHS the console could eventually lead to a break even deal for Microsoft:
“Microsoft could eventually eke out a break-even scenario.But they’d probably use it as an opportunity to cut the retail price in hopes of selling more.”