--- description: Nearly two years after its launch at $400 in November of 2013, Sony says it's dropping the PlayStation 4's price to $350. title: The PlayStation 4 Just Got Its First Major Price Cut image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf899e952a3228dbc/6987852aa988ca92756ad12e/1880917731.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The PlayStation 4 Just Got Its First Major Price Cut by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 8, 2015 1:34 PM CUT  A logo sits on the front of a Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4) games console, manufactured by Sony Corp., in this arranged photograph taken in London, U.K., on Friday, Nov. 15, 2013. A logo sits on the front of a Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4) games console, manufactured by Sony Corp., in this arranged photograph taken in London, U.K., on Friday, Nov. 15, 2013.Bloomberg—Getty Images by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 8, 2015 1:34 PM CUT Nearly two years after its launch at $400 in November of 2013, Sony says it’s dropping the PlayStation 4’s price to $350\. The permanent system cut goes into effect Friday. While it’s not an unexpected maneuver—Microsoft launched its slower-selling Xbox One at $500 in late 2013 and wound up dropping it all the way to $350 by this summer—the timing is telling. Interest in the PlayStation 4 has been steady since launch, and with a handful of exceptions, the console has consistently outsold its rivals month to month. It’s debatable whether the system actually _needed_ a price cut at this point. But Sony has a tougher holiday ahead when you contrast it and rival Microsoft’s respective exclusive lineups. _Halo 5: Guardians_ arrives on the Xbox One in just a few weeks; it’s the most anticipated holiday exclusive of 2015 [according to Nielsen](http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2015/holiday-2015-the-most-anticipated-games.html "undefined"). Microsoft also has a timed exclusive on the next _Tomb Raider_ game, launching mid-November. Sony has _The Uncharted Collection_ (the first three _Uncharted_ games in high-defintion) and an expansion pack for its high difficulty hack-and-slash _Bloodborne_ in late November. But merits aside, the _Uncharted_ series has never had _Halo_‘s star power, and the same holds for _Bloodborne_, however much the game has blown the lid off expectations at north of 2 million copies sold. So while Sony won’t come out and say it (and I don’t want to put words in the company’s mouth), it’s hard not to see the drop preemptive—a way to mitigate the inroads Microsoft is almost sure to make in monthly systems sold when the _Halo 5_ juggernaut arrives October 27. ### See The 15 Best Video Game Graphics of 2014  Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Activision's futuristic first-person shooter in which players take on a rogue private military company uses a brand new engine built specifically for PCs and new-gen consoles to handle its cutting-edge lighting, animation and physics. Sledgehammer Games/Activision  Far Cry 4\. This pulled back shot of fictional Himalayan region Kyrat is in-game, believe it or not, rendered with an overhauled version of the engine Ubisoft used to design Far Cry 3. Ubisoft  The Last of Us: Remastered. Naughty Dog's meditation on the worst (and best) of humanity is built on technology that reaches back through the studio's pulp-adventure Uncharted series. The graphics are so impressive, TIME recently assigned a conflict photographer to photograph inside the game. Ashley Gilbertson for TIME  Alien: Isolation Built from scratch, the Alien: Isolation engine's outstanding deep space visuals all but replicate the set design of Alien film concept artists H.R. Giger and Ron Cobb's work. The Creative Assembly  Assassin's Creed Unity. Ubisoft says it "basically remade the whole rendering engine" in its AnvilNext design tool to handle the studio's meticulous recreation of Paris during the French Revolution. Ubisoft  Child of Light Inspired by filmmakers like Hayao Miyazaki and artist Yoshitaka Amano, Child of Light's hand-drawn artwork puts the lie to presumptions that graphical richness depends on shader support or polygon counts. Ubisoft  Destiny Built from scratch by ex-Halo studio Bungie, Destiny's game engine was designed to scale across the next decade, says the studio. Bungie  Mario Kart 8 Nintendo's kart-racer for Wii U reminds us that raw horsepower is just a facet of crafting a beautiful game world. Nintendo  Infamous Second Son Sucker Punch's freeform Seattle-based superhero adventure models all sorts of minutia, from the intricate wrinkling of an aged character's face to the way eyelids stick, slightly, before separating when characters blink. Sucker Punch Productions  Monument Valley Escher-like at first glance, Ustwo's mind-bending puzzler was also inspired by posters, bonsai plants, arabic calligraphy and filmmaker Tarsem Singh's The Fall. Ustwo  Grand Theft Auto V Rockstar's remastered crime spree opus was crafted from an in-house engine first employed in a game that simulated table tennis. Rockstar  Titanfall Respawn Entertainment  Forza Horizon 2 Turn 10's Euro-racer actually models light refracted through drops of moisture, the render tech plausibly simulating something as intangible but essential as the earth’s atmosphere. Microsoft Studios/Turn 10 Studios  80 Days Inkle's anti-colonialist vamp on Jules Verne's famous novel uses crisp art deco imagery inspired by travel posters to unfurl 80 Days' tale of intrepid globetrotters Monsieur Fogg and his valet Passepartout. Inkle  Tomb Raider Crystal Dynamics' radical reboot of its popular series about an athletic archaeologist uses a modified version of the engine that powered Tomb Raider: Legend in 2006. 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