The PlayStation 4 launched in the United States at $399. Sony announced that recommended retail price in 2013, and the console went on sale in North America on November 15 of that year.
The price was widely viewed as competitive because the PS4 included a more conventional hardware design than its predecessor and did not require the bundled camera that accompanied some early PlayStation 3 marketing. Sony also emphasized that the system used an x86-64 AMD processor, making it more familiar for many game developers than the PS3’s unusual Cell architecture.
The $399 launch price is sometimes confused with later PS4 models and price changes. Sony introduced the PS4 Slim at a lower price of $299 in 2016, while the more powerful PlayStation 4 Pro launched at $399. The original PS4’s U.S. price was later reduced to $349.99 in October 2015, but that was not its launch price. The figure also excludes sales tax, which varies by U.S. state.