RolStoppable said:
However, none of the numbers presented in the original post are of any real use. You can't draw a definite conclusion from a single year of data from only a few consoles. You would have to look at more years and past consoles. Unfortunately, that's not really possible since the sales database for anything prior to this generation is incomplete.
Then again, it isn't necessary anyway. It's common sense that Sony may/will have profitability problems from (possibly) falling PS3 software sales. The PlayStation business posted losses for three years straight (with the exception of one holiday quarter) and the PS2 and PSP (the current money makers) are approaching the end of their lifecycles. Since PS3 hardware isn't likely to make any significant profit in the foreseeable future, it all comes down to how much PS3 software they are able to sell, because this is the only system they have left which isn't on its way out. Also, the real money in the video game business is always in the software. |
Im actually basing this thread on data provided by Thesource with much more indepth analysis from memory. Unfortunately I didn't have the foresight to bookmark the post. In it he showed that the sales software peak between 6 months and a year after the hardware peak. So what he said was 'software peak year 4, hardware peak year 3' or something along those lines. I can't find this much better and in depth proof after some searching. I simply don't really have the motivation to give a complete proof as most people who read it will dismiss it out of hand anyway.
The thing is the software sales which the PS3 relies upon are not rising in a 1:1 fashion with their hardware sales. The reason why I point it out specifically in their case is because they unlike the other two console makers rely the most on overall software sales to be high as their other sources of revenue aren't as strong. Microsoft has Xbox Live and cheaper hardware and Nintendo has the cheapest hardware and a massive stack of accessory sales. Furthermore they unlike the other two are the furthest from profit and are still going in the wrong direction to achieve their goals.
Another point I wished to make in another thread was that the Wii proves that Sony's business strategy in the console business was or is flawed. Even their strategy with the PS1 and PS2 which was to aggressively engage in price competition with weaker selling consoles cost them a lot of profit and in the end failed to drive out more than one competitor from the market (Sega). For example they if they cut the price of the PS2 by $50 and both Nintendo and Microsoft do the same, because they sold 5x the quantity of consoles as the other two then they take 5x the hit in engaging in aggressive price wars.
