I'd say bold.

I completely agree that they are an investment, I think the question in the end that OP was trying to ask (among other things >.>) was, are Sony selling their properties short by bundling them.

Here is an analogy from the auto world. We know that Mercedes are great cars, and they're made with quality labor and parts. Sure. But Mercedes set the market price of their cars, and that's what people pay. They could set the price lower, would people still buy it? Would it affect the perceived value of the product.

 I'm not saying Sony is doing that, I'm just asking the question, and it seems OP was also indirectly asking that, especially given the mention of rebate prices.

I agree that the title is a little odd "to get games into million sellers list" is no companies business, I wouldn't think. Companies are always after the bottomline (e.g. profit). But I think it's a fair question to ask, is Sony underselling its games by selling at a lower value than what they're worth?

Then you have the whole question of Supply and demand, and if you offer a product at a more affordable price, you will have more supply and more sales, but you may also decrease the deman for your product by trimming off its perceived value.

Ok, so  if I read this correct you are saying they bundle games too soon rather than let them stay on the market for a few years?  If that is the case then I don't know.  Maybe they should maximize profits from those games before bundleing them.  That would make the most sense so I do agree with you on that.  Some games will bundle during releases to sell consoles though like Halo 4, Gears of War, and Final Fantasy.  I find this to be ok though because these are big games and they also amp up the price on these consoles. They just put more memory in it to make it seem like a better deal but in reality that memory is pretty cheap.

I guess I understand your point and you are probably right that they should try maximizing a games profits before making bundles.  

So which is better selling one game or multiple games and accessories?  That is what it comes down to.  What is more important, selling your 1st party game or cutting into its profits and maximizing all software and hardware.

Yes if we took away bundles then certain games would have far less copies sold.  I mean GT5 has probably sold well over 1 million copies in bundles but we need to look at the attatch  rate for each console.  How many games are sold per each console, and how much hardware are sold at each consoles.  Exclusives is a business strategy.  They are used to say "hey buy our console because we are the only ones who have it"  Once you buy the console for that game Im sure you will look for more afterwards.  Bundles are an investment if anything. They may be losing  money on one game but accessories and other software will gain them profits.

Exactly. Prof was saying Sony have analysts to do this for them, well I wanted to talk about it since OP made the thread for it, and we're a video game sales site. That's the kind of thing we talk about.

The question then becomes, has Sony properly maximized its profits without affecting the perceived value of their IPs and games. For that, we would need to look into some sales trends (which I tried to do), but it would be difficult without having a prior gen to compare to for those same games, and also the sales conditions between two gens fluctuate (leading platform, economic situation and readiness to purchase games, genre interest variation, and so many more). I guess sometimes we ask to discover the impossible with sales numbers, but it's worth at least exploring.

Just tell me. Why Sony, specifically?

Exactly. Prof was saying Sony have analysts to do this for them, well I wanted to talk about it since OP made the thread for it, and we're a video game sales site. That's the kind of thing we talk about.

The question then becomes, has Sony properly maximized its profits without affecting the perceived value of their IPs and games. For that, we would need to look into some sales trends (which I tried to do), but it would be difficult without having a prior gen to compare to for those same games, and also the sales conditions between two gens fluctuate (leading platform, economic situation and readiness to purchase games, genre interest variation, and so many more). I guess sometimes we ask to discover the impossible with sales numbers, but it's worth at least exploring.

Well if you want a good discussion thread about this then you will likely need to make a new thread.  This thread has been ruined because he targeted Sony directly in the title.  Some people don't even read the OP.  Even then he didn't ask it the way you did.  If you want a better discussion with multiple people try making a thread about it with some data backing it up.  You would just need to figure out how soon each game got a bundle to see if what you are saying is correct.  I don't know sony, ninetendos, or microsoft's bundleing strategy or how soon they bundle.