Sony Germany: Pre-order a PS3, get a launch title free

[slider]

I'd be very grateful if someone PM's me as soon as they hear/see something about an official Sony pre-order list in the UK.

 

[cthellis42]

Bottomline is companies don't bundle unless there is a lack of demand. If Sony was confident they would sell units there would be no need to bundle additional software -- which, mind you, hurts profits.

Funny, consoles used to come out of the gates bundling.

I don't think it's lack of demand in this case, but rather:

- Alleviating some of the price concerns.
- Convincing more on-the-fencers to hop on early. (It'd be a ~$60 price drop for them, eh?)
- Better ability to control launch shipments and numbers
- More first-weeks software sales numbers to crow about.

One just hopes the offer extends to other markets! :smile:

 

[MasaC]

Wow!

Mediamarkt opens in Sweden at October 25. Here's hoping they offer that deal over here too!

 

[patsu]

If the pre-order numbers are good, it will alleviate concerns about PS3's high pricing.

 

[Tap In]

If the pre-order numbers are good, it will alleviate concerns about PS3's high pricing.

don't know why it matters. they should most certainly sell out for the first few months at any price.

It's the ability to reduce the price of the box to $199 (even $299) that is the real concern IMO.

 

[one]

Funny, consoles used to come out of the gates bundling.

I don't think it's lack of demand in this case, but rather:

- Alleviating some of the price concerns.
- Convincing more on-the-fencers to hop on early. (It'd be a ~$60 price drop for them, eh?)
- Better ability to control launch shipments and numbers
- More first-weeks software sales numbers to crow about.

One just hopes the offer extends to other markets! :smile:

In addition to these effects, it will be more useful for SCE to collect some firsthand data about the real demand for PS3 rather than from an unreliable market research firm/questionnaire. Certainly selling $499/$599 consoles is an experiment, they can't be too prepared for it.

 

[cthellis42]

True 'nuff.

 

[patsu]

don't know why it matters. they should most certainly sell out for the first few months at any price.

It's the ability to reduce the price of the box to $199 (even $299) that is the real concern IMO.

I thought about that but no one can be sure about "sell out at any price" since there is always a margin of error for any forecasts.

A successful pre-order allows Sony to _confirm_ the sell-out prediction beforehand. It's an important psychological advantage.

Ultimately, it will give Sony better control, credibility and negotiation power, allow Sony to focus more on doing its job (no need to damage control), plus stamp out any negative PR. I really hope the official pre-order promotion is universal.

 

[Tap In]

I thought about that but no one can be sure about "sell out at any price" since there is always a margin of error for any forecasts.

A successful pre-order allows Sony to _confirm_ the sell-out prediction beforehand. It's an important psychological advantage.

Ultimately, it will give Sony better control, credibility and negotiation power, allow Sony to focus more on doing its job (no need to damage control), plus stamp out any negative PR. I really hope the official pre-order promotion is universal.

all good points

of course they could accomplish the same thing by only producing 1 million WW units for launch.

 

[patsu]

If the numbers turn out positive, they will want to push as many units out the door as humanly possible. It's best not to mess with the ops (manufacturing) mechanics to generate artificial demand.

One of the advantages of the pre-order is to know the actual (initial) demand. Coupled with other advantages already mentioned, Sony can plan and execute better.

 

[Moonblade]

Just a thought but the European/Australian promotion may be the result of a predicted increased supply and availability outside Japan and NA instead of a decreased/uncertain demand (if that was the case they would focus on NA and Japan where the price resistance is bigger).

 

[overclocked]

Thinking its more to get an "idea" of how too see the 20gig vs 60gig numbers pan out.

 

[wco81]

Yes it would be a good thing to do. It will also provide valuable data for Sony.

The other benefit is price management. Say if (in case) Sony need to drop the price quickly after launch (without the game), the first wave of people won't scream.

EDIT: Oh... if my memory is correct, Ken, Phil and Kaz already mentioned that they will bundle some sort of content with PS3 sales many months ago. Not sure if they were refering to Blu-ray movies.

For the PS2, I think some boxes included a coupon you could mail in for 3 or 4 DVDs. This was something they were doing with virtually all DVD players at the time. In fact, there were some DVDs with packaging indicating they worked with the PS2 or were specially designed for it.

Also relatively earl in the PS2's life, they had a SKU with GT3 in the box for less than the price of purchasing them separately.

For the PSP, they included a UMD of Spiderman 2 in the box.

For the PS3, the least they should do is include the mail-in coupon for Blu-Ray movies. Or a demo disc with clips included in the box.

One big discount chain last week advertised 4 free movies with the purchase of the $1000 Samsung Blu-Ray player while another offered one. Not sure if they gave you the movies at the time of purchase or you had to mail in a coupon and wait a couple of months.

 

[patsu]

For the PS2, I think some boxes included a coupon you could mail in for 3 or 4 DVDs. This was something they were doing with virtually all DVD players at the time. In fact, there were some DVDs with packaging indicating they worked with the PS2 or were specially designed for it.

Also relatively earl in the PS2's life, they had a SKU with GT3 in the box for less than the price of purchasing them separately.

For the PSP, they included a UMD of Spiderman 2 in the box.

For the PS3, the least they should do is include the mail-in coupon for Blu-Ray movies. Or a demo disc with clips included in the box.

One big discount chain last week advertised 4 free movies with the purchase of the $1000 Samsung Blu-Ray player while another offered one. Not sure if they gave you the movies at the time of purchase or you had to mail in a coupon and wait a couple of months.

Yeah... let's see what Sony does for PS3 launch.

There are 2 drivers at work in the above examples:

* Bundling -- Usually a "text-book" move to (i) increase overall demand (and profit, since consumers buy 2 things instead of 1 from the vendor) by (ii) fudging with price perception. In this case, you can argue either way. e.g., If you take away the "free" game, the remaining amount is what your "real" (albeit discounted) PS3 price is. If you see it from another angle, Sony is throwing in a free game to stimulate more demand because they are stucked with PS3's high price. In both cases, if Sony lowers their price soon, the early adopters should not complain. But there is currently no indication whether Sony will do that.

* Rebates/coupons -- This is a move to separate the price sensitive crowd from the not so price sensitive crowd automatically. The former will take the extra effort to claim their money back, the latter will just throw the coupon away.

Both incentives could be done by the retailers or Sony.

 

[Lord Darkblade]

From Sony's perspective bundling a game is not a great loss, they have to pay whatever the manufacturer wants for it however there will be no retail markup and their own profit can be ~ 0 so for the customer it can seem like a $£60 discount yet be much less to the manufacturer... a good deal imo all round.

 

[Rolf N]

They'll also gain some initial statistics on which genres are the most wanted. That might be valuable to them as well. There should already be a pretty big sample size by now, and they still have 4 1/2 months to go until launch. Enough time to turn some select "backburner" game projects into launch games.