Chrkeller said:
Simply not true. 3DS very quickly dropped in price. Dreamcast dropped in price. Saturn dropped in price. N64 had hardware and software price adjustments shortly after launch. Wii U had 3 free games shortly after launch. Xbox One dropped price and Kinect shortly after launch. Xbox currently has two SKUs, premium (X) and budget (S). Original Xbox didn't drop the price, but quickly updated with a better controller. Price adjustments happen all the time in gaming, when demand dictates as such. And who dictates demand? Consumers. Nothing you are posting is even remotely accurate. But hey, continue driving some imaginary pretend economics. |
Such as PS1 dropped in price, PS2 dropped in price, DS dropped in price, Xbox 360 dropped the price, Wii dropped in price (on its peak year I must address). Those price drops weren't dictated by customers demand as all those systems were pretty hot when they got their price cuts, they were to align to certain company strategy
Besides you are looking ONLY for price drops, I'm asking you to look to the other way instead. Why are companies not increasing their prices even with demand sky high for consoles and damn scalpers selling Switches for even 500 USD?
It's because we are talking about oligopoly here. Oligpolies are sensitive to price increases much more than to price cuts, if don't mind some reading: https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/economics/monopolistic-competition-and-oligopoly/kinked-demand-theory-of-oligopoly
This is a very well know economic aspect of markets, I'm by no means an expert of this subject buy I know enough of this to understand customers have few power in markets with imperfect competition
The premise "If you don't like it, don't buy it" or "vote with your wallet" ultimelty makes sense only if you have enough back options to increase the demand for other products in the same market, so companies can really feel the heat of losing customers. In this industry we have few other options. It's either pick wich one offers you the best value proposition (as their prices for both hardware and software are largely the same) or just drop your hobbie
