Its funny, the games that Sony usually bundles are older games (retailing new for 19.99) that provide very marginal profit margins being sold alone. At least Sony is smart enough to bundle them with controller. Accessories are the highest margin product that a videogame company sells and their price are stagnant, a ps3 controller in 2006 is the same price in 2012. So you combine a game that provides little in profit margin with a controller that provides the most, sell it for 5-10 dollars higher and you get more money with them being together than sold separately. Sounds like a reasonable move to me.

@theprof00

I am not going to take sides in your little spat, but your definitely coming out on the losing side. This fights seems to have become personal for you, but for them it seems to be more sporting then anything else. You need to retreat, regroup, and refocus. I don't know what happened in that other thread, but if you are bringing that baggage into this thread it is a bad sign indeed. At this rate your only going to hurt yourself. Either you are going to end up losing this argument badly, or you are going to end up getting yourself banned by crossing a line. To put it mildly you need to step back for a while, and think about what you are doing.

@topic

Why is it that in this thread we only discussed first party consequences of bundling, and entirely ignored the very real implications that bundling has on third parties. First party sales have to be at the expense of third party sales, Sony is playing a shell game up front. That third party developers don't get any say in, or play in for that matter. Sony can roughly balance out wins and losses, but the more it is about first party software. The less room there is for third party studios to make money off of the platform. Eventually this aggressive bundling could end up really driving away developers from the platform.

Let me put it this way if Sony is offering up ten free games a year with a purchase of the console, and the console has a annual software attachment ratio of three games. Then there isn't a lot of room left over for third parties that have to sell their games to make a living. Sony is competing in a heavy handed way with third parties. Who have no real stake in the console having a couple million more in sales annually. All they know is that they are selling less games as part of the bargain.

Happy when i get home i will offer you proof.
Also, you said lost income from bundling to back up galaki.
Don't forget also that those bubdles are 299$, which is the same as launch price and comes with a smaller card and less accessories than the launch bundle, selling with the less popular model in production. The only difference between the wifi and the 3g is probably a couple bucks on the production side. Both models probably cost them around 230-250 to make. Ill get you those cost numbers when i get home.

Dodece please just point out exactly what im wrong about and ill consider it.

As per your point, somy includes third party games in their ps+ bundles, so i cant agree with your point that third parties have no say in what is going on. Its quite clear their is mutual understanding.
Secondly youre saying that bundling will come at expense, but thats more of a predicyion than a fact.
If you tell me what im wrong about i will consider your advice.

Sony has to work that much harder to get better results than what Microsoft and Nintendo has to with their Ip's

Not only is Sony's Ip's seen as less viable for the most part in the market because they do not sell as much as both Nintendo and Microsoft's offerings, but the fact that Playstation has lost not only market share but also Sony has lost  quite a bit of Mind share  to boot ,not just as a company as a whole but Also the Playstation platforms Viability to generate money for publisher's and Developers,

Sony knows this, nothing New the New CEO is trying to repair the damage of their Platform has taken over the year's call it what ever you like, what it does show is maybe they have quite a lot of work to do and so Sony has to give away everything to get the same or less results as Nintendo and Microsoft does, but at least the fact that Sony is going those extra lengths to get there for not only building back up their platforms viability, but also in the mean time maybe building some good will to the consumer for their Company to be a viable choice of not just now but in the future.

I would rather see the company doing things like this than not doing much of anything of a bonus for their consumer's!

but that mostly works out that way only when a company is in this type of shape to start with.

Congratulations for the analysis. Ended the thread.

The bundled game could help getting customers to purchase future titles though. So it's not a total loss.

Yet with all that people still say I tend to be unreasonable.... Makes you want to punch somebody.

@lasy post by happy
Now show me how the math differ from other consoles.
I'm glad we're at the crux of the argument.

Happydolphin is being unreasonable.