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crumas2 on 30 July 2009
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JEDE3 said:
crumas2 said:
JEDE3 said:
LOL! You think if the retailers are purchasing HW you don't think they are purchasing SW too? ROFL Oh man you guys are good.

Retailers do buy SW, accessories, etc.  But when they have enough stock, they stop purchasing until consumers deplete the stock.  Yes, it is important that retailers purchase hardware, etc... that's how the items are then sold to consumers.

However, the end goal is to get X number of units into consumer's hands, not to see how many units can be placed in deep-discount bargain bins before going back to the distributor as punch-outs.

Right... and again. It all matters how many total Sony sells to retails. Sony could care less if they went to the bargin bin. It isn't sony getting less money for them. They already got their share.

I'm afraid this isn't true.  Sony wants software titles for their console, 1st and 3rd party, to sell very well to consumers and not to end up in bargain bins.  Why?  If many of the titles end up in bargain bins, then those are not in consumers hands, and that means the retailers will not be ordering new copies (why should they), the software publisher has less of a chance to create a sequel, and consumers are not as likely to buy additional titles from that publisher.  Software sells the console, so Sony and everyone else in the PS3 eco-system benefits from strong software sales to consumers, not just stocking shelves and running deep discounts to dump a poorly selling title.

This is a form of something called the network effect, and it's how MS basically took over the PC desktop.  With devices that run software/media, such as games, applications, movies, etc., the device that gets the most software/media wins.  And publishers who don't have titles sell well on a device will not support it as well, and will focus their dollars and attention elsewhere.  This is marketing 101 in the console business... he who builds a popular software base fastest has a serious advantage.