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Sony Profits Conundrum
Alice, over at the Wonderland blog, has an interesting post wondering about the state of Sony's finances when put in contrast with their view on second-hand game sales, and new title prices. From the article: "Yet it turns out that discounting new releases also results in higher sales. MCV continues: 'BVG's The Chronicles of Narnia jumped ten places up the ChartTrack top 40 last week, thanks to a 16 per cent sales increase, following its slashing to £19.99 at most High Street retailers.' My question: what the hell are they complaining about? Why curtail the perfectly reasonable and legal second-hand market if they're making money hand-over-fist with the current situation?"
Because they could make a little MORE money if there was no second hand market!
My user ID is a palindrome!
Simply because a corporation seeks to maximize profits doesn't mean it shouldn't keep the customer's interest in mind. It's in Sony's interest to keep the secondary game market alive so that PS2 console owners remain happy and come back for the PS3. But yes, this also obviously hurts the primary game market. There's an obvious tradeoff here, which makes a console maker's decision whether or not to support or squash a secondary game market an interesting decision. Simply calling it "greed" marginalizes the whole conversation because it's obvious and insufficient at the same time.
I've just realized: Sony is right! Second-hand markets is a horrible, horrible idea. I mean, if other people aside from the original purchaser are able to make use out of an item after the original purchaser no longer wants it, then it will drastically hurt sales.
And not just in gaming! No, my friends, Sony is thinking too small. We need to extend this War Against Reuse (WAR).
Let's bring on folks like Certa (Serta?), Ikea, and Nike. Lots of people sell their used mattresses, furniture, and shoes at garage sales- think of the profit loss! This needs to stop. In fact, let's take a page out of the RIAA Playbook and create laws banning garage sales altogether. It's too hard to visit every garage sale, and pick out those items which were not originally created by those owning the so-called "garage", and there's a much higher percentage of second-hand goods being sold at these things, so closing them for good will solve most of the problem.
But, before that, there are more evil companies out there- yes, I'm talking about Goodwill and Salvation Army. These companies, posing as places to sell moderate-condition items at a low low price and hiring those who might not otherwise get a job, are stealing hundereds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars from legitamite, multi-billion dollar companies. These large profit companies have people to feed, too! Will no one think of their children?
We need to pick up this WAR and fight those diabolical enough to sell us used goods as a fraction of the new price. This is just horrible. I'm so glad I had this epiph-
Oh, wait, that was just gas and hot air.
Continue about your day.