Kotaku: Yo, Sony? Why you no first?

[Dodece]

@outlawauron

Your logic is sound until you realize that Sony's localized distribution has been nothing less then disastrous. The truth is that it was more cost effective for retailers, and individual buyers to import units from larger markets. Rather then pay the suggested retail price Sony was offering locally. Which could be forty or fifty percent higher then in larger markets. This before you take into account larger markets get greater software support anyway.

All that Sony really did with their pricing was to generate demand in the grey market. Where consumers would be exposed to their competitors products as well. Which favored Microsoft and Nintendo. Being that their products already had lower prices in the larger markets.

Sales in larger markets are in part based upon imports to smaller markets. So it isn't really a variable, and any sales that are made officially in those markets are puny at best. You got to see it the way consumers in those markets see things. Why pay the thousand dollars Sony is asking for locally. When you can go to a corner store that does import consoles, and buy a model from the United States for seven hundred dollars. The official product only comes with a limited warranty, and very modest technical support. So why not save three hundred dollars.

This market isn't likely to swing dramatically in Sony's favor. Microsoft is going to reach saturation in America first, and once that happens. Microsoft is going to cut prices to maintain demand, or offer a better price to importers to cover the difference in sales. I mean it is just a matter of who is going to have the surplus supply to feed into that market.