| jonnybmk said: If CoD and AC do nothing for Vita sales, which upcoming games will people tell us to wait for before a price cut is needed? |
I don't know why someone has a fixation about "cutting price only after this or that game if it alone doesn't work to lift sales", IMVHO Sony should just try to resist until more than a year from launch has passed before cutting price, because cutting price after less than a year from launch or the last cut brings a bad image backlash. So, if not really forced, they should cut after next Xmas (and BF, with time limited offers, and Xmas can give decent sales also without a price cut, ouside of Japan it would be PSV's first Xmas).
But how about if they are forced to cut before? If PSV were roughly as strong as 3DS, or even stronger, a cut in the same period of big 3DS moves, like XL launch or Mario games could be a good attack to steal thunder and spotlight from Ninty, but as PSV is weaker, it most probably wouldn't work, so for a early cut Sony should avoid doing it simultaneously with other big events, of its own or of competitors, that is a PSV cut should happen not too close to XL and NSMB2 launch, not too close to Wii U launch or a possible and long-awaited XB360 price cut, and finally not too close to PS3 "True Slim" launch, but this latter unless they want to launch some PS3+PSV bundle, in this case the synergy of the new, and cheaper to build, PS3 version and the PSV cut could allow not only to combine marketing efforts, increasig visibility, but also to price the PS3+PSV bundle competitively with competitor high end bundles and also with Wii U.
So actually, PS3+PSV bundle and marketing synergy could be the strongest reason to cut price after less than a year from launch. And of all these things, the only sure fact is that August must be avoided for PSV price cut, because Ninty staggered XL and Mario launches until 19th August, so it's quite sure that also the last week of this month will be huge for 3DS, too big to compete without taking damages.
This said, games are necessary to make the cut work at its best, and bundling at least a small memory card should become standard.
