Ari_Gold said:
ey, if you want to spend more money thats cool, to each his or her own, but not me. Their sales would increase by lowering the price, they would still be profitable, just not as profitable. |
I don't think you understand what you're talking about.
This model was pushed a lot by Sony, and Nintendo even adopted it at one point but they reversed it with the DS for many reasons. Slashing prices of the bigger sellers creates situations where the focus of marketing and development shift to the early buyer. Also, it greatly diminishes the opportunity of introducing software for lower prices legitimately, without their value getting confused with games which have been price reduced.
When Nintendo launched Brain Age for 19.99, their goal was to introduce a price point that would be consistent with the product throughout its shelf life. If there were a lot of DS games at that price the game would probably have been overlooked, and much of the unpredicted phenomenon associated with it wouldn't have happened. It also allowed them to promote it for months and years because the revenue was consistent at all times.
Slashing prices may be better for ONE type of consumer, but it's not better for gaming in general. Long term, this would have created an environment of blockbusters, where true innovators and surprise hits were very rare. That's a concern Iwata expressed before launching Brain age, and at the time people just thought he was whinning. Most people didn't think they'd be able to actually do something about it, and that it would work.
If you ant Sony's business model it's certainly still there from their side of the woods. Just don't demand Nintendo to stop theirs because believe it or not, there are benefits to everybody, and they're quite big.
