| Lightning08 said: Of course it's limited. This bundle will be costing Sony out the ass as they have to buy MGS4 from Konami only to give it away to sell their console. That's fine with 1st party games but with 3rd party games that is not such a good thing. Even the 40GB bundles being sold in Europe and Japan will have a serious toll on Sony's profits. |
Wow.. naivety thy name is Lightning08..
1. Price of MGS4
Of course Sony struck a deal with Konami on the price of the bundled software and how many of the bundles they are allowed to sell before a certain milestone is achieved. This is common industry tactics and believe me, the price Sony pays for a bundled copy is way, and I mean _waaaay_ lower than what you think (and also depends on the projected bundle-free software to be expected to sell). Only Sony/Konami could tell you what the limit is and they are certainly never going to reveal this information.
2. Price of Harddisk
The amount of 80G bundles also depends on the amount of 80G harddrives Sony could buy at the time of when the bundling scenario was plotted out. If Sony could only buy, say, 100'000 drives, then they are certainly not going to buy them now on the spot market:
For those who do not know how things happen, here's a phone talk between company A and company S that explains it to you (All names and numbers are only slightly fictional):
S: Hello, Company A, I need to buy 250'000 80G Harddisks
A: That's $25 per drive FOP standard condition
S: Uhh. the fanboys are crying, I need the drives as soon as possible
A: ok, That is $50 per drive in 1 Month
S: Uhhhhh the fanboy on VGC are really upset, I need them tomorrow...
A: ok, That's $105 per drive then
S: <click> Screw vgc fanboys
3. How much money does Sony lose for every hardware unit in _current_ production?
Assuming Sony has ordered all components with standard conditions, then
Manufacturing cost for 40G unit: $350 (-10%/+5%)
Manufacturing cost for 80G unit: $400 (-10%/+5%)
(Do not ask where I got these numbers from. I'm not going to explain them and they are roughly correct)
So
in Japan, Sony loses money on the PS3
in NA, Sony is level
in Europe, Sony is making a profit (_huge_ profit in some countries where 40G sells at $620)
