Friday, November 17, 2006

Simple Economics

Sony released the Playstation 3 today and it resulted in violence among those waiting in line to get a system. People want a PS3 so bad that they are paying around $2,000 per system on Ebay. Sony is only charging $600 for a product that has people charging electronics stores like crazed mobs. Also Sony is losing $300 on every system sold.

I may be just a lowly law student, but something’s wrong here. I understand Sony’s economic model, they’ll make up all the money lost on these new systems with the sale of video games and accessories to go with the system. It’s the same economic model used by all video game manufacturers and is always wildly profitable for Sony. Even though this model works I just hate to see a company leave money on the table. Sony, since there are more than enough people willing to pay you $2,000 for your system, how about pricing it so you at least break even on release day next time. You’ll save yourself some money and might save the lives of some gamers.

While we're on the topic of video games I'll take the time to state that the next system I buy will be Nintendo's Wii. Sony and Microsoft have released 2 impressive systems, but the Wii's controllers and gameplay look like they'll be the most revolutionary thing to hit video games since the first Playstation. Here's the Wii's official website so you can see what I'm so excited about.

1 comment:

Mike said...

Well I will be honest. Most of my "Nintendo Hate" is only becuase it really bothers Jonathan.

As much as I like the old Nintendo classic games and love to play them. I refuse to buy another Nintendo system. I play mostly "Sport" games on a consol. This past year Nintendo didnt come out with the NCAA college games which now I cant play becuase someone (UBBA) talked me into buy that stupid system.