PlayStation 2 Sales Double Following Price Cut

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing significant PlayStation 2 sales increases following the price cut to $149 last month. The piece quantifies: "Data released this week by Sony Computer Entertainment America shows that the console's sales rose by some 216 per cent in the week immediately following the price cut, with an increase of 141 per cent over the full period since the cut", and this means: "The increase in sales will have propelled the PlayStation 2 well past its console rivals, after Sony's platform slipped behind the Xbox in monthly sales for the first time since the launch of the Microsoft console." It's also explained: "The increased sales noted since the price cut have actually pushed year on year sales of the PS2 upwards, with 26 per cent growth on the same period last year - and should hopefully help to slow the overall decline in hardware sales which has hit the USA so far this year."

Comments

Re:Interesting.

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

" Right, but you fail to realize that there must be a reason that companies began using the *.99 marketing. They can't all be doing it because everyone else is doing it, because then where would it have begun? Your argument, if you don't mind my saying so, is somewhat illogical."

Actually, I do mind. I don't fail to realize - I simply failed to state. Another poster took care of this issue and proved that you are the one that is mistaken, so I won't waste any time with you on that point.

" I don't really see your point. I know that 19.99 + 0.01 = 20.00, and so does the average shopper; that doesn't mean that we, as shoppers, aren't psychologically affected by pricing."

It doesn't mean that shoppers are psychologically affected either. You've offered no proof.

" I don't doubt that. But is it significant enough to warrant sales suddenly doubling? I was not sure about that, and so therefore in my original post I ruminated on the psychological devices that would cause the average shopper to perceive the PS2 as dirt-cheap."

Actually, yes - especially considering that the price drop had been hinted at so before the price drop went into effect, sales would have dropped. It's easier to double sales once sales drop off.

"I apologize, this is pretty much off on a tangent, but...how many good games are there in the cheap bin at EB? Be honest, now.

Oh yeah? Here's games below $10.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Metacritic score of 96
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory: Metacritic score of 84
Max Payne: Metacritic score of 80
Grand Theft Auto III: Metacritic score of 97
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec: Metacritic score of 95
Devil May Cry: Metacritic score of 95

Pretty easy to pick out good games in the cheap bin. If I were to open up my search to games less than $20, I could provide even more.

"Or they may not. Anyway, the issue is moot; the lower to middle class consumer is perfectly capable of saving money from month to month. Hell, I do that. I have a good understanding of the middle class, considering that I'm in it."

Again, you missed the point completely. Anyone who has not bought a console, specifically a PS2 - the best selling console for this hardware generation, is not a very hardcore gamer. At this point in the PS2's life cycle, the purchases are coming from casual gamers. These are not the types of people who want to save money for a console. If the price point is lowered to the point where no saving has to be done, obviously sales are going to increase. Your intuition about how people think is sorely lacking.

"No, I believe that the function of government is to serve its citizens, to keep them healthy, and to provide a safety net to those who need it. How stupid people are is entirely irrelevant.

It's amusing how much disdain you, as a typical liberal, have for the general public. You were quite prepared to call them stupid cows in your original post yet you want to provide a safety net for them, why? You obviousl

Re:Slump in hardware sales?

[Deadguy2322]

Wow. More illiterate anti-console trolling. The sales slump referred to by the article was the console sales slump. Most people who play consoles are sick of this pissing and moaning from PC users with inferiority complexes. Keep upgrading your PC every year to make up for your infantile genitalia, but shut the fuck up about consoles killing the PC market. P.S. - Fuck the IT industry. Fuck them up their stupid asses!!!