| Burek said: If they were to use your strategy, they would be assured to sell even less consoles than WiiU. All digital will never work with consoles because of one major stumbling block - retail sales. It works with phones because phones are mostly secondary to the main goal - subscription plans. Phone manufacturers manufacture phones only, they let others fill it with software. Phone digitalization exists because a great percentage of downloads are free of charge. PC digitalization works because PC manufacturers just make computers or components, they let others fill it with software. In both cases, retail stores that sell phones and PCs are not invested in filling them with software. They are chasing profits from subscriptions on phone services (or just a dandy margin on a full priced phone) and solid margins on computer components.
Console space, however, is very different. Consoles don't generate much profit, they are often even loss leaders for the store in order to move a high margin product - a video game. In the instance in which the retailer would lose any and all potential gane sales, and be just constrained to selling big boxes for a $2 profit, they just would not. They would just choose not to stock NX completely. Why waste 2 square feet of precious shelf space on a $2 generating (or losing) item, when the same space can be filled with 20 video games generating a total of about $150 profit. Gamespot, WalMart, Target etc. are certainly aware of that. That is one of the main reasons Microsoft did not go (and they could have, they had all systems in place) full digital with XOne, and why digital games on XBL and PSN still cost the same as in the store, although all logic and expenses say they should be cheaper digitally. And, of course, by going all digital, Nintendo would ensure themselves to lose about 75-80% of potential global market from the places that have crappy or expensive internet. And one of those countries is USA, their largest market, a narket in which ISPs have a lot of power and where limiting bandwidth and non-flat internet is very prominent. |
Thank you for explaining it to him. I just didn't have the energy to give him as detailed an explanation as I knew it would require.
Just to add. @spemanig; I hope and pray Nintendo does nothing like what you are suggesting. It would be the single worst thing they could do and be the end of their platform. You can't "force" people into whatever future you feel they need to be in when there are variable more effective options in the present. Personally, I think its ludicrous to believe that all Nintendo has to do is push for a digital console and that will be it. Kinda shows how limited your grasp of this industry is.
