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HappySqurriel on 31 December 2008
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Alby_da_Wolf said:

@HappySqurriel

Megastores sell movies and a lot of devices suitable to pirate them too.
They sell hairdriers, that have attach rate only on items not sold at electronics and appliance store.
They sell bagless vacuum cleaners, but also those with paper bags, after the model isn't new anymore, you don't find them at megastores, but in smaller specialized stores or at repairer's shops.
They sell bulky TV sets that occupy large parts of the stores although the attach rate for recording and playing devices is <1.
They sell cellphones, ovens, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, etc, if they sell devices with 0 attach rate or little more, often bulkier and sometimes cheaper too, why should they stop selling PSP's that have an higher attach rate anyway?

 


Just to make the point clearer ( http://vgchartz.com/ayearly.php )

Number of games per console that sold more than 250,000 copies in North America in 2008

PSP: 10
PS2: 21
PS3: 40
Nintendo Wii: 67
Nintendo DS: 78
XBox 360: 86

Number of games per console that sold more than 125,000 copies in North America in 2008

PSP: 31
PS2: 49
PS3: 86
Nintendo Wii: 100+
Nintendo DS: 100+
XBox 360: 100+

 

In 2006 The PSP sold 16 Million peices of software on 7 Million units of hardware, in 2007 the PSP sold 17 Million pieces of software on 11 Million units of hardware, and in 2008 the PSP sold 15 Million pieces of software on 15 Million units of hardware. In 2009 you can (pretty much) count on the PSP selling less than 16 Million peices of software in North America ... How is the PSP going to maintain its shelf space when the XBox 360, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS all sell 5 times as much software as the PSP does, and have far more software which sells in a high enough volume to justify the shelf space?

Many people may argue that the hardware sales of the PSP are still pretty good (and they are) but the problem is that retailers do not make much money on the hardware, and they tend to sell the hardware because that is the only way they can sell licenced software and accessories for a platform; and even the margin on software is not that great, and the software is only highly profitable because of the volume of software that they tend to sell.

It may not be what people want to hear, but if a retailer can make more money by stocking Barbie: Island Princess for the Wii than they can by stocking Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops for the PSP they are going to drop their remaining copies of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops into the Bargain Bin and Barbie: Island Princess will take its place on the Wall.