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Forums - Sales Discussion - Time To Put The PS2 DVD Myth To Rest

LudicrousSpeed on 06 August 2017
Landguy said:
thismeintiel said:

 

I decided to make this thread because I have noticed a myth being thrown out there as fact on a few threads.  Mainly those talking about the PS2's sales compared to the PS4's.

The myth goes like this...When the PS2 launched in late 2000 WW, it was around the same price as a cheap DVD player, so many just picked it up to have the benefits of a DVD player, that they might decide to occassionally play games on.  It's mainly used as a way to either explain the PS2's success and/or explain why the PS4 can't match the PS2.  There's one big glaring problem with that.  It's a big, fat lie.  Well, at least an ignorance on the subject.

You see, in late 2000, you could pick up a cheap DVD player for around $150, or half the price of a PS2.  Here's a link to a blog where they were looking for the $99 DVD players announced in a Yahoo News article (sadly this is not archived), but only found ones not discounted.  Searching online, they found GE and Zenith models for ~$149, a Samsung for $160, and Walmart had a GE player for $139.  And during the holidays, especially Black Friday, you could pick up one for $99, or 1/3 the price of a PS2.  The site in the first link got a bunch of replies from their readers and wrote another article about the $99 players being available for Black Friday.

This myth gets even sillier the further you look into the PS2's lifetime.  You see DVD players dropped in price quite quickly.  By 2003, they could be bought for under $50.  Keep in mind that this was less than 1/3 the price of the then $179 PS2.  Here is a Black Friday ad from 2004, that advertises a DVD player for under $18.  That's less than 1/8th the price of the then $149 PS2.  This price thing is also silly, as it does not explain why the Xbox, which was the exact same price as the PS2, wasn't also bought as a cheap DVD player.  Are people really going to try and say that a required $30 DVD kit was all that was stopping consumers from buying the Xbox en masse?

There is something else that disproves the DVD player myth.  SW attach ratios.  It's just like how we can prove the PS3 wasn't bought by millions upon millions of for its Bluray player function.  The PS3's SW attach ratio is basically tied with the 360's, which only used a DVD drive.  If there were so many people who bought it for Bluray, the attach ratio would have been MUCH smaller.  Similarly with PS2, its attach ratio would have been much lower if 25M+ of its sales were mainly for DVD use.  Instead it is right there behind the 360 and PS3, with just one less game bought per console, at 10.5:1.  And it's attach ratio is also very similar to the Xbox's.

So, I think it is time to put this ridiculous myth to rest.  It's obvious the PS2 sold so well because it had 3 things most PS systems have.  Great price.  Great 1st party support.  Great 3rd party support.  It's the same reason the PS4 is doing so well.  Granted, I don't think the PS4 will match the PS2, but 100M+ is pretty much guaranteed.  Thoughts?

Not sure how old you are, but whatever info that you have is wrong.  I managed Best Buy Stores at that time.  During the 1st 6 months after the PS2 lauch, it was hard to get due to limited stock.  But, after that it was the best selling DVD player for about a year and a half.  Yes, there might have been some super cheap dvd players eventually, but good dvd players cost $400+.  At Best Buy, we literally sold a PS2 to anyone wanted a good dvd player or high end video set up.  I was a manager and I must have sold a 1,000 PS2's myself as DVD players.  The hardest thing to get was the PS2 DVD remote.

So, YES, the PS2 had a huge amount of sales due to the DVD function.  

Hey I was a manager at Walmart at the time. And you're right, of course. Despite what some old blog link might say. We seemed to sell almost as many as a DVD player as a game console. Plus we got corporate messages and directives to push them as such. OP seems to think some of us believe 50% of its sales were from DVD or something. I don't get the need to defend it but whatever.



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Pemalite on 07 August 2017
Landguy said:

Nice try, but like I said, I was a store manager.  I had over 200 employees at my store working for me.  This wasn't my directive, but a corporate plan for all best buy stores.

He has links to factual pieces of information.

You are asking us to believe your opinion, the opinion of an Internet stranger who is using ancedotal evidence.
What you did as a living is not important unless you can back your claims up with evidence.

Everyone will pick his article over what you are claiming I am afraid. (And so they should.)

*******
Back during the PS2's early years, we ended up buying the PS2 because it was price-competitive with decent DVD players, not because DVD players were stupidly expensive. - And it could play games.

On the PC... DVD Combo drivers (DVD Rom + CD Burner) was retailing for about $100-$150 AUD, where-as the PS2 was about $400 AUD.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

Landguy on 07 August 2017
Pemalite said:
Landguy said:

Nice try, but like I said, I was a store manager.  I had over 200 employees at my store working for me.  This wasn't my directive, but a corporate plan for all best buy stores.

He has links to factual pieces of information.

You are asking us to believe your opinion, the opinion of an Internet stranger who is using ancedotal evidence.
What you did as a living is not important unless you can back your claims up with evidence.

Everyone will pick his article over what you are claiming I am afraid. (And so they should.)

*******
Back during the PS2's early years, we ended up buying the PS2 because it was price-competitive with decent DVD players, not because DVD players were stupidly expensive. - And it could play games.

On the PC... DVD Combo drivers (DVD Rom + CD Burner) was retailing for about $100-$150 AUD, where-as the PS2 was about $400 AUD.

so, a link to a blog(not a well etablished news source) from 17 years ago "proves" it?  Now you want me to provide emails from a job i had 17 years ago to prove my story?  

Can't prove either side of the story it seems.

I never even argued that $99 dvd players existed, even though i thought that was a year or 2 later.   black friday specials were just that.  they were well below normal price to get people in the door.  most were sold below cost.



It is near the end of the end....

Pemalite on 07 August 2017
Landguy said:

so, a link to a blog(not a well etablished news source) from 17 years ago "proves" it?  Now you want me to provide emails from a job i had 17 years ago to prove my story?  

Can't prove either side of the story it seems.

I never even argued that $99 dvd players existed, even though i thought that was a year or 2 later.   black friday specials were just that.  they were well below normal price to get people in the door.  most were sold below cost.

He has provided more than one link. And a Blog can be a legitimate source of information if the Blog is using appropriate citations.

Your claim doesn't become more legitimate just because you disagree with them or the source materials that they have provided.
You need to backup your claims with evidence. Like they have.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--