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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Is the mass market now purchasing consoles now??

leo-j on 07 August 2007

The ds is selling well becuase of the kids as well, the psp has nothing interesting to play and not only that but its more expensive.



 

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ceres on 07 August 2007
Kasz216 said:
Wii and 360, yeah. PS3... not so much. Not even all the "fanboys" have bot PS3's yet. Or as those who have had marketing classes like to call them "Early Adopters" and "Brand Loyalists".

The "Mainstream" usually won't make a large run at a product until it hits that sweet spot price point. Which for videogame consoles seems to be around 300 dollars. Hence why the Wii is selling more mainstream then everyone else. Of course hype can increase that pricepoint... but hasn't so far for the PS3.

It's actually closer to around $200 being the mass market price point. Sales of the PS2 really started soaring after the $100 pricecut last generation. It's one of the major reasons this generation is really going to test just how much the general populace is willing to spend on gaming. The PS3 with blu-ray isn't going to convince people it's worth the extra price because DVD wasn't fully embraced until those players started hitting $150 and lower. I just don't see a $400 PS3 being embraced by the general populace.



To cash in my CC rewards points for $300 in Circuit City gift cards to purchase a 360 or not: That is the question.

ckmlb on 07 August 2007

The mass market is definitely not picking up 360s and PS3s yet. Core gamers are picking up 360s, and some are picking up PS3s.

The Wii is being picked up by the mass market because it's 250$ and the people buying it are going above the usual 200$ mass market level cause there is a pack in game and the console is very different and appeals to non gamers.

The 360 needs another price cut to hit the mass market, but with this new price and Halo 3, core gamers should buy it in good amounts.

PS3 needs another price cut and more games to reach the level of being picked up by core gamers, the games over the holidays and MGS 4/GTA IV next year should help.

I expect another PS3 price drop before MGS 4 and GTA IV hit.



Thanks to Blacksaber for the sig!

Astrodust on 07 August 2007
leo-j said:
The wii, is getting sales because of mario and price basicly everyone that had a GC is getting a wii, and some ps2 owners.

The ps3 can easily outsell the wii if it were at the same price. But people arent rich.

The 360 even though its cheaper than the ps3, is still lossing market share from the ps3. its basicly doomed.

I have my doubts that the PS3 would outsell the Wii even if it were the same price. I think Nintendo tapped into an expanded market that the PS3 and the 360 have yet to take advantage of. I imagine the PS3 could max out at 100-125 million. The Wii could be higher, maybe over 200 million. Only if grandmothers start buying it down the road. Stupid I know, but the market is expanding. What if 25% of people into fitness and yoga picked up a Wii. That would be way over 200 million. Nintendo knows this.



 

 

diegomoroco777 on 07 August 2007

Wii hasn`t penetrated the mass market that much right now, I still is expensive for many ( many people only pay 150- for consoles) and it is hard to find so many casuals will just wait till it is more available.



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Louie on 07 August 2007

@all who say the DS isn´t penetrating the mass market: It sells better than the PS2. So the PS2 didn´t reach the mass market?



Takashii360 on 07 August 2007
ckmlb said:
The mass market is definitely not picking up 360s and PS3s yet. Core gamers are picking up 360s, and some are picking up PS3s.

The Wii is being picked up by the mass market because it's 250$ and the people buying it are going above the usual 200$ mass market level cause there is a pack in game and the console is very different and appeals to non gamers.

The 360 needs another price cut to hit the mass market, but with this new price and Halo 3, core gamers should buy it in good amounts.

PS3 needs another price cut and more games to reach the level of being picked up by core gamers, the games over the holidays and MGS 4/GTA IV next year should help.

I expect another PS3 price drop before MGS 4 and GTA IV hit.

So basically what your trying to say is that $300 is the mass market price...right?




 
Just_Ben on 07 August 2007

I think the Wii will do that WW. The 360 has a good chance to hit that point in America. The PS 3 maybe in Europe and Japan.



Join up to the VGC Mario Kart Wii GP European League!

Or the VGC Mario Kart Wii GP Australian League!

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Or the VGC Halo 3 American League!

Or the  VGC Call Of Duty PS3 League!

Takashii360 on 07 August 2007
I found a article that was kind of intresting considering that the mass market sweet price is between $200-$300...its also worth noting price isn't everything games play a role..as an example of the Gamecube....Also the PS2 came in with a packed DVD player..thats what also drove PS2 sales at the time...^_^
CONSOLE PRICE CUTS: THE EVIDENCE
With the Xbox 360 is nearing its 19th month on the market, it will soon have held its launch price longer than the PlayStation 2. Both launched first in their respective generations and held the line on pricing for a year longer than the competitors. The Xbox 360 would have to drop by a third in price when it does drop to stay in keeping with last generation's trends. If such a drop were to take place, the Xbox 360 Core would drop to $200, the Premium to $267, and the Elite to $320.

Microsoft may already feel they've had a de facto price drop by releasing the Xbox 360 Elite. Consumers may not realize that the Xbox 360 Premium used to be the high end model and -- upon seeing the $480 Elite model -- settle for the Premium as the cheaper alternative. That is, the Elite provides the cover needed to make the Premium look cheaper than it really is.

A PlayStation 3 or Wii price drop in the near term would align nicely with the pricing of the Xbox and GameCube in 2002. However, should Sony opt to reduce the price of the PlayStation 3, it will be likely be in the 16-20% range, not the 25-33% range that Microsoft and Nintendo chose for their last generation consoles.

Whereas Sony and Microsoft might be considering price drops to increase mass-market uptake of their respective consoles, Nintendo has no such motivation. The Wii has already proven its appeal and appears to be constrained more by supply than by price. The data from the last generation suggests that Nintendo will not, in fact should not, drop the price of the Wii for some time.

Who Bought What and When

Some might argue, based on the history of console prices, that consumers have a mental barrier right around $300 beyond which they are far less likely to consider buying a new system. For example, the 3D0, SNK Neo-Geo, and Sega Saturn -- which all sold poorly in North America -- retailed for $700, $650, and $400 respectively. On the other hand Sony's original PlayStation retailed for $300 at launch and all Nintendo consoles up to the Wii were first sold for $200.

However, the available NPD data from the last generation actually suggests that most consumers purchased their new consoles at or well below $200. That is, to the extent that a console's mass-market appeal is tied to price, the magic price is far below the $300 mark, closer to $200.

To see this, we first look at the sales of the PlayStation 2 and ask: how many people bought that console at each of its five prices? The chart below answers that question:




As you can see, only 24% of all PlayStation 2 systems in North America sold at $300. The remaining 76% sold for $200 or less with $150 being the most popular price by a small margin. Certainly time plays a factor there -- the $150 system price was in place for longer than any other -- but Sony would likely not have kept that price if it weren't selling systems as a rate they found acceptable.
The Xbox, like the PlayStation 2, also started at $300 but remained at that price for a far shorter time. Using the same method used to analyze the PlayStation 2 above, the graph below tells the story:









A mere 13% of all Xboxes were sold at the highest price, $300, while over 42% went for $150. A closer look at the data shows that the drop from $300 to $200 did spur sales, but the drop to $180 hardly changed the number of systems bought per month. By comparison, the drop to $150 pushed Xbox sales above 200,000 systems per month and kept them there until May 2005, the month that the Xbox 360 was announced.

Finally, here is the graph for the GameCube's pricing:

 






The GameCube is a bit of an odd man out, since it started at $200 and only went down from there. It also sold the fewest systems, which demonstrates that being below $200 isn't the sole determining factor to average consumers. While most GameCubes were sold at the $100 level, it is important to note that the rate at which the system sold each month was not significantly improved in the long term by that price drop. The GameCube stayed at that price for over 3.5 years, which essentially explains why 60% of those systems were sold at that price.

Finally, we can look at the graph of the average price of each system in the last generation:






The average PlayStation 2 consumer paid a hair under $200 for his console. The Xbox, at about $188 on average, fares a bit better than the GameCube with its average price of $127. Should we be surprised that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have failed to live up to sales expectations, given that their prime products -- the Xbox 360 Premium and 60Gb PlayStation 3 -- retail for two to three times the average of that consumers have been paying?

And is it any surprise that the Wii, priced at just $50 over the magic $200 barrier, is selling so well? There is ample room to argue that price isn't everything -- Nintendo's own GameCube proved that point amply -- but if a system can approach the price which moved the majority of systems in the past seven years and can offer a compelling experience at the same time, then that can post record sales month after month. The history of PlayStation 2 sales and recent trends in Wii sales seem to support that argument.

 


...Or Not


Certainly we can use history as a guide, but there are limits to its use for prognostication. The price drops this generation may happen in ways entirely different from what has been suggested above.

Maybe the $300 console this generation will be what the $200 console was last generation. Maybe Microsoft will forge ahead with its current price structure until after Halo 3 has come and gone. Maybe Sony will bless the PlayStation 3 with a 33% price drop sometime this year. And maybe Nintendo will give the Wii a small price drop by removing Wii Sports from the package.

Those could happen, but don't bet on it.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5883&Itemid=50




 
Killzone3 on 07 August 2007

What is mass market, and is it the same for the 3 consoles.