Sony relying on heavily bundled and/or deep discount just to get games into million sellers list?

[Jaywood2010]

happydolphin said:

JayWood2010 said:

I'm going to point you away from him for a moment.  You want to have a reasonable discussion then discuss it with me.  I think why a lot of people are upset with this thread is because it is directed at sony.  You need to remember that most users on this site are sony fans so they will defend it.  The title its self seems to be geared towards getting people in here to argue rather than have a good discussion.  

With that said all three companies do bundle a lot.  In fact I'd say probably every single exclusive that  has sold more than 1 million has been bundled at 1 point in time.  Some game get bundled more than others but it is a business strategy to get people to buy consoles and then buy more software.  If they like the bundled game they will also buy previous or future installments correct?  

So with all that said what is the argument we are having?  maybe I'm not getting it but I don't see how bundles is relying on selling game over 1 million.  Do you think sony, nintendo, or miscrosoft cares how many copies they sell?  They care about profits and that is what they are trying to do, to gain profits with new customers.

As an example, let's look at the idea of selling more further down the road with say, a sequel (like you said).

Typically sequels tend to sell less than their predecessors, a prime example is Super Mario bros., where sequels have always sold less. Of course Mario helped push the NES, but unless the profit was factored into the console's price, the profit opportunity of Mario is lost in the bundle in one form or another. True that it pushes units, but what if the game had the potential to yield more profit if non-bundled? That's what I think OP is asking. It could be wrong, it could be right, but it's defo open for debate.

Yeah, I understand that bundling helps push consoles or accessories, which then help push titles, so the ultimate question is did the benefit outweight the cost (lost profit opportunity on the title).

So which is better selling one game or multiple games and accessories?  That is what it comes down to.  What is more important, selling your 1st party game or cutting into its profits and maximizing all software and hardware.

Yes if we took away bundles then certain games would have far less copies sold.  I mean GT5 has probably sold well over 1 million copies in bundles but we need to look at the attatch  rate for each console.  How many games are sold per each console, and how much hardware are sold at each consoles.  Exclusives is a business strategy.  They are used to say "hey buy our console because we are the only ones who have it"  Once you buy the console for that game Im sure you will look for more afterwards.  Bundles are an investment if anything. They may be losing  money on one game but accessories and other software will gain them profits.