By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
hunter_alien on 24 December 2020
Edit Thread
KManX89 said:
vonny said:

Random analyst says x, any affect from scalpers will be short lived. If scalping continues to be a thing it means people are still buying them which means games will be also sold, if scalpers can't sell their stock the scalping will end.

Read it again, they're NOT being sold, at least not a rate that turns a profit (and platform holders get a cut of all software sales, let's not forget, especially first party games). Less than a third of all physical games were sold for every console moved, that's operating at a loss. Even with digital sales added, they don't break even.

Not that any of this matters to scalpers, they only have to sell a fraction of their hoarded stock to turn a profit since it's being sold for more than double or even triple (!) their MSRP.

And I'm ready to quote you in a few months time when all this shit is still going on.

hunter_alien said:

What about digital sales? Sorry but tthe arguments are not convincing enough for me to actually think that this will hurt them in the long run.

*sigh* Here it is since some people lack reading comprehension:

“Even if we consider digital download software purchases, the percentage of sold PlayStation 5s actually in use is not that high, meaning the current demand is constrained by profit-taking resellers,” according to Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute.

I read it but it just shrugs away digital sales and many other possible explanations and makes it seem like a far bigger sensation than it actually is. I mean as of latte console digital sales on the PS3/One were over 2/3 of the total software sales (or even higher in times of the pandemic). Why wouldn't it be far bigger on the PS5?

This article is just written in a very clickbait manner, and it conveniently forgets to prioritize concrete information and vaguely word many "facts" like "actually not that high". Based on what? Historical data? Expectations? Rival systems? Or simply what the analyst would want to see?

Don't get me wrong, I hate scalpers, they are the lepers of the launch period, and I do agree with you that they are not helping the industry in any way, shape, or form, but articles like this are written mostly to grab attention and make a huge fuss about something that is either not there at all, or it's there but the impact is far more limited.

Also, the last part of the article simply spins the fact that the PS5 is not an attractive product for the Japanese consumers, by somehow attaching this to the scalping issue. What is mentioned there is mostly down to the PS5 software offering in general, and the decline of home consoles in Japan, rather than the 5 minutes of fame that scalpers are enjoying.



Vote the Mayor for Mayor!