Mandalore76 said:
Umm, no. This logic implies that not a single PS5 or XBox Series X was sold directly to a consumer, and that all PS5 and XSX sales passed through scalpers hands first. The PS5 & XSX owners who did end up buying from a scalper do not make up the bulk of those userbases. A majority of those people got to pay the MSRP price. However, in your scenario, Sony and Microsoft should be forcing all of their early adopters to pay the scalper prices. That is an awful idea, and I am sure that PS5's would be extremely easy to find in stores right now if Sony tried charging $1000 for them at retail. Please check how the PS3 did at $599. The reason console manufacturers take an early loss on the hardware is to bring in those customers who would otherwise wait for the price to drop, because they know they will make back the profit on software. They want to attract more users, not less, into the userbase at that early stage.
Actually no, it's not out of a sense of entitlement that any consumer would be against a tactic known as "price gouging". price gougingnoun an act or instance of charging customers too high a price for goods or services, especially when demand is high and supplies are limited |
Consoles are sold at loss, mostly. The prices aren't high, rather they are pretty low. Even when they are not sold at loss anymore it usually don't factorize how much was needed in P&D do develop the console in first place.
Software is the one really overpriced... but let's not enter here
Almost any technological product know for its depreciation over time are sold at higher prices and then decreases over time. Cars, computers, smartphones, TVs. Even games if you are not Nintendo. However early adopters in gaming are a much more passionated kind of customers and will not wait idle for the prices to drop
The market laws would generally ditate this price dynamics organically, but manufactures are enforcing low price policies to avoid public backslash. Instead of the console maker getting the extra money from however the market is willing pay, it's small retailers and scalpers who are getting.
As someone who DGAF for scalping and couldn't care less if I will only get a PS5 next month or in 2 years, this problem does not concern me a bit. If companies are comfortable losing money for scalpers, why would I even bother?
What I don't get is why people rage about scalping when it's just the market dynamics playing their role, companies can't really do anything, people have the right to sell their properties for how much they want. Even enforcing official retailers is painful for them. Maybe if gamers don't receive consoles high price with so much outrage scalping wouldn't be a problem, it would be up to customers decided if paying 800 USD in a PS5 was worth or not, and if a company decided that the sales aren't good enough (like Xbone and PS3) they would then decrease the price. Does it look like a devious ploy? Not really for me.