| jammy2211 said:
Hardware Sales seems like a really silly business model too, simply cause Nintendo / Sony / Microsoft would never commit to it. Whats in it for them? Except a huge risk. |
Potentially big profit, and huge market share compared to other companies.
The problem with the old razor and blades model, is the assumption that customers are idiots who always buy the product with the smallest price tag, and let themselves to be milked forever, without a second thought. While this might be true for some, usually on the long term, people realize the disadvantages of this option.
It worked with actual razors and blades, because people don't really care about 1-2 $ differences, they are like "Well, there are only a few dollars in my pocket, so I will buy the cheaper razor, even though I know that the blades will cost me a bit more, but I don't care"
But with bigger expenses, I suspect there are millions of potential customers who see the commitment as a barrier, and would prefer one big payment.
As I'm thinking about it, I'm more and more sure that it would work. A console with $200 production cost (roughly the xbox 360's), sold for 500$ would mean that the cusomer paid for five $50 games that he would have directly payed for in this generation(based on PS3/Wii attachment rates). Of course he would try more games, this is why third parties should get their money for hours of global playtime. This would encourage the development of immersive, and long games, that would directly reward the developers by keeping you at the screen, and directly punish them if you decide that their game is teh shite, and turn it off after two wasted hours.
Also: FREE GAMES!4!OMG!!44!! LOLZ!!four!!!four!!44
