Leasing Consoles

You're all missing a very important point: If you can't figure out a way to scrounge up $300 for a toy, your credit is probably so horrible that anyone who would loan money to you at below 20% interest is a complete idiot.

Actually, if you read my post, you will see that ive already pointed this out :p

You've missed the whole Credit Crunch because 'complete idiots' lent money to people who couldn't pay it back, right?

If by complete idiots = US government then your pretty much correct.
 
Banks too. Loads of consumers are out of pocket having borrowed money they couldn't afford to, and the banks are out of pocket because they gave away money they won't get back (unless they managed to sell those debts on to even bigger idiots). Hence the collapse of the Icelandic banks.

At the start of this generation there was no problem getting credit to buy a console. there were plenty of adverts in the UK for dcredit to high-risk people with lousy credit ratings, CCJs, yadayada. I doubt anyone who would be willing to take a higher-purchase/credit purchase offer to buy a console didn't do so this generation. If a console-company provided financing service were offered though, I think more people would consider it than would consider taking out a 3rd party loan/credit card purchase. That's just an expectation of people based on casual observation. Considering how many people are in debt, perhaps I'm off the mark there and it wouldn't make any difference to console sales if in future official credit options are availabe.
 
Lets not get into the whole causes of the financial crysis, it would require a big thesis.

The collapse of icelandic banks was from complete other things than borrowers failing to repay their loans (extreme high gearing and extremely aggressive investment policy due to deregulation and ofc, with extreme high gearing comes extreme high risk..)

At the start of this generation there was no problem getting credit to buy a console. there were plenty of adverts in the UK for dcredit to high-risk people with lousy credit ratings, CCJs, yadayada. I doubt anyone who would be willing to take a higher-purchase/credit purchase offer to buy a console didn't do so this generation.
If a console-company provided financing service were offered though, I think more people would consider it than would consider taking out a 3rd party loan/credit card purchase. That's just an expectation of people based on casual observation. Considering how many people are in debt, perhaps I'm off the mark there and it wouldn't make any difference to console sales if in future official credit options are availabe.

This is a very good point.
 
One question is how would the consumers get the games for it if they're only allowed to have the hardware to play the games they buy for a finite amount of time?

Hardware-wise, it might work if you lease the whole 9 yards in one single type of sku (including wireless, hdd, etc). But a lot of people probably want only specific features (ie: largest hdd but won't go online) which means you'd either need a ton of shelf space in b&m stores or else everybody would have to lease the console by ordering online or something.

It seems that this system would just get more confusing for the consumer and make it harder for the manufacturers and retailers to pitch.
 
You've missed the whole Credit Crunch because 'complete idiots' lent money to people who couldn't pay it back, right?
Yes, so the fact that people are suggesting loaning money at low interest to people with bad credit as though that were something any sane company should consider is all the more ludicrous.
 
In the US you can already "lease" consoles. One such retail store that does this is "rent a center". They have 360s, Wiis and PS3 Slims which they rent to you for a rather hefty fee. I remember someone ask me right, after the PS3 and Wii launched, if $60 a month for 2 years was too harsh. I remember thinking, "Who wants to pay $1440 dollars for a PS3?".

Unfortunately, I guess its enough to entice these retail stores to offer game consoles at such ridiculous terms.
 
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