Call of Duty for Vita? Update: N-Space not developing Black Ops 2 for handhelds!

[Chark]

RolStoppable said:

Chark said:

What? I said $10 for retailers, $10 for wholesallers. That's $30 left for Activision. I don't know exact costs per copy but they sure aren't getting the full $50. They want to, that's why digital sales are where they want to go. Those two games weren't that old and that wasn't the point, they are willing to create incentives at pretty significant cost off price tag. So what if Activision provides a $50 game for free for one month, a good portion of those sales will be from consumers who buy a Vita, which allows Sony to compensate Activision for each free game given away because of a decent trade off. At the same time some people will probably sign up for Elite just to get that, that's extra revenue for content that is already provided, and those customers might continue with the service. It's just good business for everyone.

Best this is that this is above and beyond a smarter financial move than a price cut, which is a horrible decision and would destroy Sony's profits. By holding off until a reasonable time to drop the price gives them better leverage to drop the price at the right time. If they were to do it this year it would be forever before they could do it again leaving them in the same position later.

Sony brought themselves into a situation where they have to destroy their profits in order to keep the PSV going. There may be several ways to get the Vita back on track, but all of them involve spending more money than Sony would want to.

This argument is turning into a battle of semantics in a highly hypothetical scenario, so I'll surrender and let you have this win. It's better to end it now than to keep dragging it out, because there's not much of a chance for a different outcome anyway.

It's nice you yield in the face of the numbers. I know its hypothetical, and companies usually don't arrange these kind of things. I just think with Activision having their Elite service provides such a great opportunity to create an incentive that would resonate and stack the cards in their favor while pushing Sony forward with their console and saving them from a price cut. The price cut is more than just a financially difficult decision, Nintendo caused themselves some problems down the road when they did that. Financially Nintendo was in a better place to do a cut than Sony, 3DS only costs $100 to produce as opposed to $160.

There are plenty of ways to encourage sales this year, sales aren't even that low yet. A price cut is only an option because Nintendo choose to do so. Sony would be smart to leverage other means so that the Vita can continue in its expected path over the years and provide Sony a profitable outlet. Unless they pull a move like I suggest with Activision, or provide inticing bundles during the holidays along with the release of new titles, Sony may consider doing a price cut through a modest bundle for the holidays only. Something like dropping $50 adding a 4gb and a game, but returning to their regular pricing after the season ends. This way they can sell more consoles to boost their base without suffering the fiscal hell that occurs from a premature permanent price cut.