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| zorg1000 said: I think that may be the future strategies for Sony & Microsoft with the way the industry is moving and development times/costs continue to accelerate. PS/XB have traditionally used the razor and blades strategy where hardware is initially sold at a loss with regular price cuts in order to increase the install base and get as many people invested in their ecosystems to sell higher profit margin software, accessories & subscriptions but I think that strategy may soon be a thing of the past. I think hardware will still be a major pillar of their gaming businesses but it will be at higher prices with a focus on selling at a profit day 1 and shift focus to maximizing software sales and subscriptions by offering them on as many devices as possible. Sony will probably be slower and less aggressive in this transition since PlayStation sells a lot more than Xbox but I don’t think they will be far behind. Will this impact hardware sales? Probably, but would it be better for Sony & Microsoft to sell ~90m & ~40m instead of ~115m & ~55m if their hardware is sold at higher profit margins and their software/subscriptions are on mobile/PC in addition to their consoles? I’m not sure but we may soon find out. |
But why would subscription services take off on PC/mobile even more so than consoles?
We've already seen Microsoft try to leverage GamePass in a similar manner and look at how that turned out for them. PC players don't even want to link a PSN account yet alone use another storefront other than Steam.
