withdreday said:
Squilliam said:
Why cut the price in order to attract the least profitable customers? The generation is almost over and these people are only *just now* getting a console? Do you expect them to be buying many games and accessories? Are they just going to raid the greatest hits and used sections of the game store? There is little point in competiting for the worst customers.
Also they probably want to establish the perception of stabililty and quality. I.E. They sell the Xbox 360 for 'more' than the PS3 for the equivalent SKU and that is with fewer features and pay to play online. They want people to think that the Xbox brand represents high quality and therefore is worth paying for. They also want to establish a degree of stability with the pricing so people don't feel they have to wait for a price cut, with Sony I have a feeling that people expect the price cuts too much and they become a self fulfilling prophecy. I.E. people expect a cut every X number of years so the sales go down as people wait for it which forces Sony to cut the price. They want people to jump on board as quickly as possible so look for a $X - $200 deal with $15/month Xbox Live at launch.
|
You're assuming these are the "worst customers", but that's were the huge sales market is. And it's not the very poor people as you make it sound. It most likely people who have rent, cable bills, car payments, etc, and think 300 bucks on a game console is to much of a jump at this point. And once those people start buy a few greatest hits titles, they'll surely pony up for the next major release like GTA5.
And the point about the 360 being about "high quality" is fairly debatable looking at a problem involving "red rings" early in it's life cycle. But I don't want to go debating that, so I digress
|
Someone who buys a console nearly 7 years after release isn't going to buy as many games as a person who bought his console 3 years after release simply because the system is nearing obsolesence. They obviously aren't big gamers otherwise they would have bought the console already, wouldn't they? So another strike. If your console is making $100 on a $200 console, cutting the price $50 would require you to double hardware sales in order to increase profits but no $50 cut has ever doubled sales.
