We need to talk about the PS Vitas sales...

[Chark]

Dodece said:
@Chark

This is the sales forum, and I shouldn't need to explain a concept as fundamental as retail overhead to anybody. You really should have a working understanding of such things. Retailers actually lose money when merchandise doesn't sell. Sales are how they cover the costs of overhead. Retailers have to pay taxes, employees, utilities, insurance, investors, and to maintain their facilities.

When a product takes up real estate it must cover the overhead for that real estate. If the product doesn't sell well, or worse doesn't sell at all. That means the retailer is spending money to keep it on their shelves. Right now based on the sales there are a lot of retail locations losing money by carrying the Vita. When they could be using that space to sell something that well actually sells. At this point it is simple deductive logic.

If the sales don't pick up enough to cover the overhead. Then the retailer is going to go through a series of steps to try and make it a profitable venture, and if none of the steps do the trick. Then they will cut their losses by putting the device on clearance to remove it from their inventory. Your arguments beyond this point are entirely specious, and based upon your own feelings rather then logic.

It doesn't matter if Sony can go it alone, and make money off of the Vita. Which I assure you it can't the majority of sales still take place within physical locations. That wouldn't matter to retailers. The only thing that would in truth matter to them is that they couldn't make money off of the product, and that they were losing money by carrying the product. They couldn't care less if Sony took its toy and went back home.

Sony needs these retailers more then need Sony. Retailers have a lot of choices when it comes to the products that they are going to carry. Behaving badly isn't going to help Sony sell retailers on carrying Sony products. All that would do is make their business rivals look more professional. Yes is business demeanor matters if your rival is equal to you on all accounts, but they do a better job of getting their arguments across by being more hospitable. Then chances are they will get the sale.

I would like to say that Sony would never behave so irresponsibly, but if they were to do so then they would start to suffer terribly for doing so. You don't smart off, or insult people that you need to do business with to survive. I don't think you should have even floated that idea.

As for this whole what makes a console debate you all have it wrong. The origin of the name is what matters, and not the wordy definition a dictionary fabricated. A game console can be found on a television console. The name comes from where the device is located. The origin of the term is colloquial, and not technical in nature. So the definition that takes precedence is the colloquial one. Colloquially speaking we don't consider portable gaming devices to be consoles. We call them portable devices.

Geesh, I was just matching your prediction with another outrageous one. The biggest sales period for the game industry is about to hit along with a good number of big titles. Even the thought that all retailer support would go away during that time is preposterous. That and you are meerly speculating that the overhead cost for selling the device isn't making up for it in sales. I imagine the console itself has a low profit margin, but what about the games, the accessories, the memory card? They dont' take up that much space and retailers can always limit it down to a few square feet of display. Sometimes retailers themselves need to attempt to encourage sales and there isn't any indication that they are taking extreme measures. Extreme measures being an attempt to bolster sales not clear out stock. If a scenario like you suggest would happen it would be a more drawn out process, not something that would happen by years end and especially not during the most lucritive time of the year while strong support is being seen by the manufacturing company. PlayStation isn't some toss away brand either, PSP, PS2, and PS3 are prominent at most gaming retailers and have been for years. Retailers aren't going to benefit by cutting themselves out of future hardware success.

If something crazy like that ends up happening, my scenerio would be Sony's best bet since brick and mortar places would essentially be screwing over "people that you need to do business with to survive." It's a two way street.