And Sony is loaning them out for free left and right.
[quote]Although this $2,500 price is being cited in development circles, the game-makers we spoke to all said that Sony had lent them dev-kits for a limited period of one year, for free. [T]here are no dev-kits being sold. Sony is sending whatever it has available to favored developers. "All the indies I know got them for free," said one developer.[/quote]
For comparison, the PS3 devkit originally cost $20K.
Sony is not screwing around this generation.
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They lend free dev kits to certain indie developers that are proven, well known, and have successful games, and/or games that are already in the works and look promising. Often the free devkit comes at the price of exclusivity in the console market. $2,500 is 5x as much as an Xbox One devkit *snickers* Joking aside, for indie developers, especially unproven guys that are just starting out, $2,500 seems like a crapton.