| Killergran said: So the only reason the PS3 hasn't gone through the roof and sold more than the PS2 and Wii combined is that it's expensive? That's the only reason you can come up with? I was really hoping for an insightful analysis. Instead I got a complete rehash of the price argument with an invented reason to ignore the fact that the Xbox 360's arcade model has the lowest pricepoint. Couldn't it possibly be considered that what the Playstation 3 offers isn't actually what people want? And that that is part of the reason it's not selling well? Consider this: All three companies made different choices. Nintendo's choice earned them good sales and high profits. Microsoft's choices earned them mediocre sales and no profits/big losses(?). Sony's choices earned them mediocre/bad sales and huge losses. And what do you mean that Wii owners 'wouldn't buy an HD console because of their inept casuality'? Is it "Wii doesn't count because I don't want it" or "Wii owners are too stupid for their own good"? Both reasons are bad, though the latter is downright loathsome. By the way, your Bluray vs. DVD argument makes no sense whatsoever. When the PS3 released it was also relatively cheap compared to other blu-ray players. It was only recently that the Blu-ray price sunk beneath the PS3 price. So apart from the opening post being a complete disaster, I believe the PS3 is doing ok, but Sony isn't. They're actually doing pretty bad right now, last I heard. |
Taking just the U.S. price into consideration you could say the Wii is actually cheaper or the same price as the Xbox 360 Arcade because the Wii comes one with highly desirable game which displaces the need to purchase additional software at the point of sale. We've seen Wii Sports sell at an attach rate of 50% in Japan where there is a large and well developed used game/console market. The important cost is not the naked entry console price but the price at the counter with software/accessories etc.
As for Microsofts profits well we know that the Zune is losing them money, Windows for mobile is losing money most likely, as it was breaking even before the mad scramble to compete with the iPhone and Zune HD/Surface/Natal development has been money draining in one direction along with who knows what other mad projects they have running there. The only profit driver I can see in the division is the Xbox 360 which offsets these liabilities. Reading into their occasional statements about how the Xbox 360 is doing with regards to cost, revenue etc and its pretty likely that the Xbox 360 is far more profitable than the overall division results would indicate and I would suggest they are keeping these numbers close to their chest as to not tip off Sony about their options available to their pricing strategy.
Tease.
