Last time Sony released a new video game console–with the Playstation 3 in November 2007–the company had a rude awakening. Already paying for the year-long headstart they’d given to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and lagging in buzz behind Nintendo’s revolutionary new Wii (which released a week later), Sony blundered in the original price point for their console, a sky-high retail tag of $599. That initial move, coupled with a dearth of stellar gaming content, cost Sony dearly in the gaming battle they had dominated throughout the previous console generation, and as the launch of the Playstation 4 nears, industry analysts are confident the company will not make the same mistake twice.

According to recent speculations from experts like Arvind Bhatia and Michael Pachter, Sony will skew their price point much lower this time, likely somewhere in the $349 to $399 range. Pachter predicted that each console would cost about $275 to make, a “bill of materials” figure that is quite a bit lower than the PS3’s. In comparison, in February 2006, CNET estimated that the pre-launch PS3  which  cost between $725 and $905 to produce. Sony continued to sell the console at a loss for the majority of its run.

While the theory stands that companies can make up the console cost (and loss) in game sales, Sony is apparently looking to actually make a few bucks off each PS4 this time around. And from the numbers predicted by Bhatia and Pachter, Microsoft will be the company presenting this generation’s most expensive machine: Pachter guessed the the upcoming Xbox One would boast a $325 bill of materials, putting the likely shelf price at $399 per unit.

Nintendo’s Wii U, on the other hand, costs about $180 to produce, a figure that’s gone up a bit from the original Wii’s initial $160 bill of materials. The lower numbers didn’t save Nintendo much throughout the first six months of the Wii U run–as of April, the console had sold less than three million units–but they also mean that the company cashed in big time with the original Wii. To date, the Wii has shipped nearly 100 million consoles since 2006, more than the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3, and Nintendo’s higher profit margin means the company will probably be able to weather the disappointing performance of the Wii U without much impact.

But ultimately, the performance of the new consoles will come down to games and auxiliary offerings over price. Microsoft has expressed a desire to make the Xbox One a household fixture for all things entertainment, while Sony has vowed to make the PS4 all about the hardcore gamers. With launches likely on their way for this fall, the world will soon see which outfit has the upper hand.