| NightDragon83 said: I think you are missing my point... people who are mainly interested in purchasing a Blu-Ray player are going to opt for the cheaper stand-alone models instead of a PS3, so that takes them out of the equation. Now people who are mainly interested in gaming will basically be split just going by the hardware alone ($199 360 w/out Blu-Ray vs. $299 PS3 w/ Blu-Ray), so the deciding factor for them will most likely come down to each system's game library. My point was that with the advent of more mainstream standalone players, Blu-Ray playback won't be that big of a factor in the PS3's sales going forward... it's going to come down to the games (as it always does). So it'll be interesting to see how the PS3 does through the holidays and if it gets only a small spike in sales from the price drop, or if it continues to sell as good or better than the 360 throughout the holidays and into 2010. |
You just repeated yourself, and I still find it faulty. The world is not made of people who give value only to BD playing and zero to games, and from people who only value games and give zero value to BD playing. Most commonly, they'll give some value to both, though in different amounts. And $100 is low enough, psychologically, to make them sway toward an integrated solution. Let's try with a couple more realistic personas:
a) guy enters in a shop to buy a BD player. He has waited for the prices to go down, so he's probably quite price-conscious. He looks around among the cheapest ones. The clerk also suggests "the cheapest ones are about $200 thought they go all the way up or, you know, for $300 you can buy a PS3. It's a better player than these and it's, you know, a playstation for games and stuff. And it has a big hard disk and can play the movies from internet or from your PC. Yes, wireless or with the network cable".
b) guy enters in a shop to buy a console. He looks at a 360 arcade for $199. He sees there's also an Elite $299 model and a PS3 at $299. He asks why they cost more. The clerk answers: "because they have got the HDD, you have to buy it separately with the arcade. And the PS3 also reads Blu-ray movies - yes, the high definition ones - and has wireless. How much is a Blu-ray player? They start from about $200, the cheap ones, but can cost much more"
Basically in both cases I'd say that many people will find the extra $100 a good investment, even if it is not what they originally thought of. There will be those that give really a value close to zero to gaming or BD playing, but they will not be the majority.
