Intrinsic said:
Shadow1980 said:
I'm still doubtful of the effects of permanent price cuts to have a massive effect. After correcting for the effects of system-sellers and other short-term boosts that affected only a single month, it appears they've made modest impacts. The initial cut to $350 for the PS4 produced a roughly 13% YoY boost for the Jan.-May period of 2016, with the boost completely vanishing by July (which was down significantly from July 2015; its effect on June cannot be determined because of Batman: Arkham Knight's impact on sales in June 2015). 13% for a five-month span is not a huge boost. The Slim and corresponding permanent drop to $300 produced only a 10.25% YoY increase in weekly average sales for the Jan.-Aug. period of 2017 (June 2017 was excised from the data set because of the short-term boost of the $250 Limited Edition Gold PS4). Again, that's quite modest, especially compared to price cuts from previous generations, and, interestingly, most of that YoY growth was from July (+34.8% YoY) and August (+18.75% YoY) for reasons I cannot be sure of (perhaps a drop in 2016 sales ahead of the Slim's launch). The Jan.-May period of 2017 was up a meager 3% YoY.
Now, a cut to $199 for the PS4 Slim (and possibly XBO S), if it's even in the cards, would be a deeper price cut than any of the others, and thus potentially capable of more. However, as I mentioned, no price cut that deep has come this late in a generation before, and, when taking into account how late we are in this generation and other factors like market share and the historical effects of late-gen price cuts, I'm skeptical of the ability of such a cut to create significant sales growth. I'm even more skeptical that we'll even see it in the first place. Historical precedent doesn't bode well for any of it. I think there would be more to gain sales-wise from cuts to the Pro and X1X, assuming Sony & MS decide that it's in their best interests to do so at this juncture.
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Yes, I agree that smaller price drops don't really do that much in the long term, but I think thats expected. How many people really are holding off from buying a console because of a $50 difference in price? The way I see it, there are a shit ton of budget buyers that would prefer to buy at $150 but are willing to go up to $199. Then there are a fewer number of people whose sweet spot is $199 but are willing to do $249 but that larger number of $149 buyers are not going to go up $100 more.
Same can be said of all price drops really. If sony drops to $199, they are effectively getting the $150, $200 and $250 crowds all at once. Thats why that will have a bigger impact than a smaller drop in price.
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Not sure how he can argue against the effects of a price cut. Of course a price cut is always going to have a lasting impact. However, that impact isn't going to show itself in a boost that continues for months, but rather an initial one, with a slowing of the natural decline that would happen if there was no cut in the following months.
zorg1000 said:
Megiddo said:
Now now, we already know that there can be absolutely no discussion of Labo until after the Christmas holiday. Because all of a sudden for no reason whatsoever parents are going to be lined up in stores across the nation just hoping to get that cardboard as a gift for little Timmy. It's going to be pandemonium, mayhem, something we haven't seen since Tickle Me Elmo. A product that has barely registered in the great consumer consciousness for the 6 months it has been on the market is just going become the top toy to buy despite requiring to have a 300 dollar device to operate it.
I honestly wonder if the people spewing that nonsense actually spent 5 seconds to even think about just how bonkers that notion was.
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It makes me really wonder why they said they expect 80% of its yearly sales to occur in Q4. That's way too specific to be just PR talk so either they are going to start marketing it like crazy or they were crazy for thinking it
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I think they were just hoping to have the next gaming fad that would skyrocket sales. If Labo has dropped this fast, it's not going to all of a sudden become a massive hit 7 months after it hit shelves. Product buying just doesn't behave that way. I have no doubt sales will improve with holiday bundles, but nothing to the extent that will label Labo a huge success.
Personally, I think the problem is that the Switch already has a gimmick that works for it. It's a hybrid system that can be a handheld or a home console, with removable motion controllers. Adding another gimmick on top of that just seems unnecessary. I think it's also hard to get over the fact that the product is just cardboard.
