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More Gaming Hardware Price Cuts, Mergers Needed?

Posted by simoniker on from the cut-slash-cut dept.

Thanks to Reuters for its article discussing game publishers' and analysts' lust for console hardware price cuts. According to the IDG-authored survey: "2003 proved disappointing to industry players because of a dearth of both blockbuster titles and significant hardware price cuts to stimulate demand", and Activision's Bobby Kotick expands on these wished-for price reductions: "Fifty percent of all hardware units on the (original) PlayStation were sold at $99... For some reason, this is one of those industries where that $99 is such a magic price point, and it's such a catalyst for that mass-market consumer." Mike McGarvey of Eidos also commented on the rise of the mega-publisher through continued mergers: "It's not far off, I think... six or seven (publishers) sounds about right."

5 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Magic price point... by wheresdrew · · Score: 4, Interesting
    $49 could also be referred to as the "where were you when we needed you?" price point.

    I had a ton of people coming into the shop I worked in after the Dreamcast was cut to $49.99, hoping to pick one up. By that time it was too late for the DC, and the price cut was just for clearing out inventory. If the "end of life" shoppers had taken a closer look at the DC earlier on, maybe it's life wouldn't have ended when it did.

    (Yeah, it wasn't a good enough value to them at $199, $149, or even $99, so they weren't going to pick one up without the price cut anyways - but still. To a DC fan who thought it was a great system for $199, it was really annoying to deal with the scavengers swooping in to pick at it's still-warm corpse.)

  2. Re:Pricing structure & mergers by Mr.Dippy · · Score: 0, Interesting

    So are you saying that the Phantom Game Console is the answer?

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    -Dipster
  3. Hardware manufacturing. by nitrocloud · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I've heard a recent statistic about DVD players. The cheap low-end DVD players that cost $40 in China are for sell for $41 dollars in the US stores... A 1 dollar profit margin cannot be enough for anyone to not get the short end of the stick except the Chinese. Maybe we should all just buy domestic and Japanese high-end profits to protest the low prices? Who really knows, but what is the point where hardware is sold for a loss and why?

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    Karma: Good, or bust!
    1. Re:Hardware manufacturing. by MrRTFM · · Score: 2, Interesting

      yeh, you can understand game consoles doing it (market share), but it doesnt make sense for DVD player manufacturers to sell at a loss.

      Point is, they probably dont - they just say they do and get kickbacks from somewhere.

      --
      You can't expect to wield supreme executive power, just because some watery tart threw a sword at you
  4. Re:Magic price point... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Good point, I knew that when I was a kid, the "big" gift I could ask for from Mom & Dad was somewhere around $50. Now this was a while ago, so I assumme it's about equal to $100 now.

    Now what my much younger brother and sister have been getting, that sort of irks me. Surfboards? Damn it.