it is about short term, people rarely only buy a console and walk out the door.  Any of the posters will back me up on this, it is widely known around here that retailers make their money on software and acc

1. In some areas it's true, in most the difference is not so high.
2. It could be said the same for English, when the original product is Japanese, not counting the fact that then Spanish, Arab and Chinese versions should be cheaper than English ones, catering for an even wider actual or potential audience. And anyway this should marginally affect HW, only SW should have significantly higher costs, particularly if voice acting too and not only text is translated.
3. Each country has the staff in proportion to its population and only having to talk one language, only some bi- or multi- lingual EU countries should have higher costs for this.
4. I don't know how much more that simple sections of Sony Europe they are now, but you're right that traditionally Sony had quite a heavy organization that Stringer is trying to get leaner.
5. This matter should make costs lower in EU than in USA, as we have had for some time now community-wide rules that once satisfied allow the sale of products in every EU country.

1) How is "the difference not so high"?  They ship less quantity of product to each retailer and each group.  When shipping is much cheaper when it's  in large quantities.  The US has less specialty stores and more mass chains that cover the entire country then the EU has stores that cover every country in the EU.

2) Not it shouldn't... since the Chinsese, Spanish and Arab versions don't sell nearly as much.  Also you've got multiple languages for it's advertising.  Keep in mind an EU version has to be in like 5-6 different languages... not counting some other countries that demand native language games.

3) No.  It costs much more to have numerous offices, with numerous CEOs then it does to have one small centrally located group.

4) Agreed.

5) Not... really.  Once again there is a LOT more to take into consideration.

Maybe in USA, but here in EU we have a lot of electronics and appliances stores that sell very little SW compared to HW...

this thread is about the US you know

It gives yet another reason why EU prices cost more then wouldn't it?

Need for a higher margin for the retailers.

Usually the average US buyer will buy 2-3 games with their console bare minimum.

Heck, some best buy stores for example actually take a small loss after shipping from their distribution centers to stores as far as consoles are considered.

Wouldn't the cost be split over the PS3's sold so the more consoles they sell the lower the cost of this will seem over time as they sell more PS3's

It gives a better reason, indeed. Although quite curiously specialty stores often make better offer than mass chains, at least in my region, where due to old and never severed ties with the former communist party, that still controls my province and another two out of the four of my region, hence the special permissions for not specialty hypermarket greater than 10,000m², Coop has the local monopoly on hypermarkets and can afford not being competitive at all, but one of the most expensive chains in Italy (almost all the other regional divisions of Coop offer far better prices). To cut it short, the biggest generalist store of my town this Xmas offered the smallest discount on PS3.

retail margin for consoles is slim. Toys r Us didn't give employees discounts on consoles. Target bribes the employee to push 5 SW titles with every purchase of a system. Think about it. Consoles are already expensive. If chains mark up the price a lot more than they buy it for someone would just undercut them and sell out week after week and the consumer wouldnt shop at those other stores. Not only for just the HW but the SW too.

As far as I'm concerned, this is how it works in Spain:

Games -> Price for retailers 49'90~54'90. Price for consumers -> 64'90~69'90 for most recent games.

Consoles -> Price for retailers is 5~10€ minus the consumers price.


You might ask yourselves where the hell is the big deal then. Well, the big deal comes from two ways.

1. As the retail space taken by consoles is quite big and the profit is really low, retailers obtain advantages from console makers (Sony, Ninty, MS). If they take 10 consoles, they will be getting more units of a game for a discounted price, official gamepads or other official periferics for free or at low price.

Periferics themselves as a category is quite profitable.


2. Self-branded products. They make the most of the money for the big retailers. When you buy a HDMI video cable from "gameware", Game is getting lots of money there. The same applies for non-official controllers, cases, and everything you can imagine. Another source of money is the renting and used games market. In order to expand that market to its limits, they rent used games and they sell renting games. Once a game has been used and has reached their hands, it is out there just to give money. They pay you about 25 or 30€ (in best cases) for the most recent blockbuster hits, and then they rent them for several weeks and/or selling it for about 50€.



In a nutshell: No money for consoles. Poor money for new games. Accesories and used games make their day ^^.



PS: I write this as writer from the point of view of a reviewer from a website and also as retailer (partner of the retailer actually). I hope this helps.