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thismeintiel on 14 February 2015
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vivster said:
thismeintiel said:
vivster said:

The basic reasoning behind it is the assumption of a greatly changed electronic entertainment industry since the start of last gen. This includes:

- Shorter hardware cycles (see smartphones, televisions)

The only impact smartphones have had on the industry is that it has taken away much of the casual market for handheld devices.  This hasn't just automatically made people want to replace everything they own after having it a year or two.  Otherwise, everyone who wanted to jump onto this gen would have done it by now.

 



Just gonna answer the first because it pretty much defeats the rest.

So what makes you think that the big part of the people who wanted to get a PS4 not already jumped? We have literally no precedence over the behavior of the current consumer and their buying behavior towards fast console cycles. And you can't deny that the way we consume media has changed profoundly in the last 8 years.

Lol, this is where I stopped reading.  You honestly think a big part (I'm going to take that to mean a little less than half), have already jumped in?  It's still $399 for goodness sakes.  You honestly don't think the large majority haven't jumped in, yet?  This has happened EVERY gen.  People wait for big exclusives to jump in.  Or a certain price to jump in.  Nothing has changed.

And yes, I CAN deny that how we consume has changed.  The only real difference is how we get our media.  Not when we get it or replace it.  Some people like to point to smartphones, probably cause that's all they have to back them up, to illustrate this.  But, smartphones are a different beast.  Most importantly, people get BIG discounts on devices from their service providers.  They can get an iPhone or nice Android for $99-$199, maybe less if through upgrade programs, instead of the $499-$599 they would normally spend if they just bought it.  You think all of those people would buy the new iPhones/Droids if they had to pay full price EVERY SINGLE YEAR.  Fuck no they wouldn't.

For just about EVERYTHING ELSE, people hang on to their belongings unless it breaks, they get a new one as a gift, or the new one has a really nice feature (for TV and DVD/Bluray players, something like 3D or 4K.)  Sure, there are people who are well off who can afford to purchase these things almost every year, but for the average consumer they aren't just going out there and start buying new things every year just because their service provider is helping them get a new phone every year, which I'm sure they aren't always taking advantage of, either.