Did Sony Profit from the Walmart $100 Discount?

[Bodhesatva]

Let's just be straight about this, Mifely: you're suggesting that retailers are willing to lose millions of dollars to push the consoles. Their marginal benefit is miniscule. The companies who are responsible for pushing the consoles are Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. They are the ones with the largest marginal benefit -- by an enormous margin -- as this industry grows.

If video games weren't selling, then movies/music/some other entertainment would be selling, instead. Wal Mart does not care what's selling, they will be making money any way. If Nintendo died, that just means more people are buying Sony/Microsoft games. It's irrelevant to Wal-Mart. If people stopped watching movies, it would just mean that they're using their time doing something else instead; listening to music, playing video games, going to the beach. In which case Wal Mart is there to sell these people Ipods, Video Game consoles, and Volleyballs.

Wal Mart is affected by fluctuations in the GDP much more than they are fluctuations in any specific market. They are in all markets at once; they aren't concerned with any single market, because if the GDP is still growing, shrinkage in one industry is automatically and logically counterbalanced by growth in another. But do you know who actually stands to gain the most from growth in a specific industry? The companies that manufacture products in that specific industry. Do you know who stands to gain the most from growth of a specific product in a specific industry? The company that makes that specific product in that specific industry.