HappySqurriel on 23 October 2007
| SlorgNet said: It's simple: most people think of consoles as a standalone business, but Sony understands that consoles are just another platform. PS3 = early adopters and audiophiles, PS2 = mass market, PSP = handheld games. It's an integrated strategy for a diverse market where no company holds a monopoly position anywhere, anymore. Noone at Sony expected the PS3 to sell more than 6 to 8 million ("sold" for Sony means units shipped, not sold to final consumers, which means they should hit their target by mid-November) its first year. Nor do you want to sell more than that -- each first-year console has high manufacturing costs, which means the price point is high, and you still lose money. The first year you spend cost-reducing the heck out of the hardware and getting developers on board. Costs come down, and then the mass market opens up. |
Then why did they forcast 6 Million sales by March 31st 2007 with an additional 11 Million by March 31st 2008? (If you're not good at math, that works out to 17 Million units after being on the market for 15 months).
No, the reality is that Sony believed their own hype and thought that people really would "Get a second job" to buy a PS3 and that they "would sell 5 million units without any games" ...
