| EricHiggin said: Kinda like the SW2 comparison, but worse, consoles aren't cell phones. Consoles with mid gen upgrades may be slightly more cell phone like than they used to be, but it's far from a new model every year, and SNY went from a 3 year upgrade to 4 years, not the other way around. XB1 and XBS consoles also had contracts offered and that hasn't done much for them, so why would it all of the sudden hugely increase the install base for SNY next gen? I wasn't saying nobody does contracts, and I wasn't saying my friend group and I are the only demographic, but everything points to a contract offer being something that will barely move the needle in terms of growth. You might get some existing PS5 gamers to sign up for that type of contract, but how would that really help if those same gamers would just buy a PS6 regardless, contract or not? MLID has done breakdowns of the per part pricing and the PS6 Handheld could be sold at $599, break even, worst case. As for SNY and MS not doing any subsidizing, MS dropped their XBGP pricing recently, and how's SNY offering a monthly hardware package for PS6 much different vs subsidizing the hardware (bundles) $100 at launch? If anything a monthly hardware contract would be an even bigger subsidy. Even if Plus were included, that still doesn't guarantee extra sales anymore than a typical $100 subsidy to launch hardware does. With all the tech going into the PS6 Handheld (and possibly PS6 Lite in that case) it's going to match if not exceed PS5 (while docked). It wouldn't outdo PS5 by a lot but it very well will be superior to PS5 overall. Kinda like how PS4 Pro punched above its weight along with PS5. PS4 Pro wasn't too far off what XB1X was achieving and PS5 was on par if not exceeding XBSX much of the time. Many didn't see that coming. There are around 40 million PS4 users at this point. That's not a small market. That also doesn't include any non gamers who've wanted a PS5 but couldn't afford one, or new people looking into getting into gaming for the first time next gen, or getting back into gaming. I only know a couple people who said they'd like a PS6 Handheld, where as the rest have said they would all prefer a cheaper PS6 Lite console. There's no doubt a market for both, but I'd argue you'd see higher sales for the PS6 Lite. |
A price cut on Gamepass isn't subsidisation. Are we saying its now making a loss for MS whereas before the price cut it was profit? They've removed content like COD to reduce the cost of gamepass but being an evolving service its costs aren't fixed for us to talk about subsidisation in the same way.
I also wouldn't say "everything" suggests contracts wouldn't move the needle, unless there is actual evidence beyond anectotes of friends etc. Again it's not even an idea I'm married to, but when they spoke on business model they were referring to something bigger than just selling a PS6 lite IMO.
We can agree to disagree, but the last thing about a contract is that it is not the same as subsidising hardware, it's literally a binding agreement of the user covering the cost (and more often). Financially it's treated different.
Regarding MLID prediction, I'd love for that to be the case. Those for now are broad speculations on their part, with them even saying prices may increase quite a bit. I'm not fully against a PS6 lite, I just don't think it actually solves the issue they're facing in getting their active audience (mostly on PS5) to move to their next system and keep up engagement.
