Shadow1980 said:
I'm not sure how many more units they could have sold had they cut prices more. I think the main reason the 360 & PS3 have had such poor post-peak legs is because they had already sold a ton of units. By the end of 2011, their peak sales year, they had already sold over 52.6M units combined in the U.S., about three-quarters of their current lifetime tally of just under 70M. Meanwhile, the PS2 peaked in 2002, and by the end of that year it had sold only about 15.9M in the U.S., which is only 34% of its lifetime total of about 46.7M (I would have factored Xbox sales in there as well, but it died quickly after the 360 was released). The PS2 still had a lot of life left in it even after it peaked, and while sales did steadily decline over the years it had good legs thanks largely to very strong software support. Meanwhile, the 360 & PS3 took a while to really get going, and once they peaked they had already sold to the vast majority of households that were willing and able to buy a console. Further price cuts might have helped a little bit, but probably not by much. The PS2 had several price cuts following its peak, but any effects they might have had were modest, and once the PS3 was reduced to $400 that took the wind out of the PS2's sails rather quickly. Reductions to $200 might have helped the 360 & PS3 a bit in 2012 & 2013, perhaps slowing the decline a bit, but once the PS4 & XBO were released that still would've been it for them. Reducing them to $200 might have added at best several million units combined between the two for post-2011 sales, but that would have come at the expense of reduced revenues and profits. I think by time Q2 2012 rolled around and it was obvious both systems were past their peak, both Sony & MS were already working on getting the PS4 & XBO out and they probably figured it would be more profitable to refrain from heavily discounting their older systems, which weren't going to be around much longer anyway once their replacements were out. The 360 has already been discontinued, and the PS3 isn't too far behind it. |
Eh the PS3/Wii/360 had a whopping 0 total pricecuts after any next gen console released. While the PS2 had at least 2 pricecuts, maybe even more after the next gen released.
PS1 also had pricecuts during PS2's lifetime. It hardly affected PS2, and in fact may have strengthened brand awareness for PS2.
I think the same for PS2. After people bought a PS2 in pricecut form in 2005-2009, lots of people intended to stay with PS which lead to strong late gen sales of PS3.
You might be right about profitability, but for total hardware sales and brand awareness I think the pricecuts would have been beneficial.
