The Gamer's Quarter

DonMarco · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 349 Location: 33903

Worry not over the details and what situations would arrise to make this happen or not happen. Imagine this is some Twilight Zone where you wake up, head off to work only to hear the news at 11 am EST. The price of a DS and PSP has been doubled to $259.99 and $499.99. This is the new price and will not return to what it has been before. Units are stocked in bulk, so there will be no shortages of either. Just expensive-ass systems released/flooded in a totally unprepared market. It's beautiful...

Because that's something to think about. What might happen, no matter how unlikely, is somethign I think about to kill time. An alternate reality where the handhelds just magically became super-expensive. Would one system suddenly sell a fuckton? Would the other be ignored for the other? Which is "the better deal"? I suppose that's the most dumbed-down way putting it.

Would the DS or PSP sell more on the first business week? Both systems at their new prices, which system would sell more in the next year? Do you think the DS because it's cheaper? The shiny PSP as the multimedia do-it-all it was originally intentioned to be? I don't mean to say how expensive or cheap the systems are now, just asking for your thoughts on it all.
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Collector of over 1,538 strategy guides. That's weird, right?

Persona-sama · Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:36 pm Post subject:

I think the Gameboy Micro would start selling more units at that point!
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sawtooth · . Joined: 02 Nov 2005 Posts: 419

I'd start a lawsuit because that would be in violation of some law or another?

I'd imagine we'd se a lot of psps for sale on ebay so the people that bought them can sell them for less than the new msrp and make a profit. uh, same for ds's as well.

TOLLMASTER · nippon ichi PR man Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 187

PSP sales would probably plummet, while DS sales would go down, but not quite as much.

People buy a PSP not to play games, but to perhaps to play games in the future. All of my friends say they're going to buy a PSP someday, but when I ask them what games they'd want, they can't really think of any they'd buy. There are games they want, sure, but the games aren't good enough for them to use their money on PSP games when they could be buying something on a home console. They also don't seem too interested in the homebrew scene (i.e. ROMs) either. They mostly just want the system because the system looks like something you'd have a great time with at some point, but they're not going to spend that much money on something they have trouble justifying.

DS, though. If you're that type of gamer, you have to have it and at least two of the games for it. It's hard to look at DS games and say "I could live the rest of my life without playing that," they just have a large sort of appeal. With the PSP you see games that have been done elsewhere better, while the DS is either better or is doing something completely new.

Things would change, of course, if the PSP got some steam behind it. Right now it seems that companies are just kind of making games for the system and releasing them, instead of trying to one-up every other game on the market with their newest game. What I mean is, people developing for the PSP don't really have much competition, so they don't have to make anything exciting, they just have to make something that people will maybe buy because they need a game for the PSP.

SuperWes · Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:01 am Post subject:

I think that people would become disgusted at the fact that Sony and Nintendo are trying to get even more money from them for no discernable reason and they'd stop purchasing either. BUT I do think that there would continue to be PSPs sold simply for the fact that some of the people the PSP appeals to are the type of people who don't care what they pay for something as long as they've got it. The DS not so much.

-Wes

ALSO:

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dhex · Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:59 am Post subject:

ok, that's fucking awesome.

this question revolves around what the price tolerance for this kind of market is, something i'm sure nintendo and sony's marketing departments have explored but i've seen little information on this topic myself. i have my doubts as to the issue of market saturation in handhelds considering nintendo's strategy of making 39 flavors of their handhelds at various price points and buy-in abilities. whether doubling the cost would adversely affect sales is pretty obvious, but whether it would affect fiscal health is something else entirely.

i..e presuming that the profit margin for each product would remain the same, i.e. that the doubling was due to some sort of material issue, rather than a 100% inflation, which would not only not happen in real life but create an entirely new - and far lower - benchmark for total sales in order to remain profitable.

however, i do think this is an interesting reflection on one's personal view of these markets and the anthropomorphic tendencies we ascribe to various companies. which may have been don marco's roshi-like point in the first place.
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DonMarco · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 349 Location: 33903

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

You know. I honestly thought that $250 was a modest price for the PSP. All things sony considered. This does not mean that it is a cheap system or that it is affordable, just I really expected Sony to gouge for about 6 months.

Kinda OT. Sorry.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
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Kinuko · . Joined: 13 Dec 2005 Posts: 66

I think that the PSP is in no way, shape or form worth more than $300. I'd actually consider buying a DS at $250 though; the only reason I don't have one is because I use my brother's or Persona's and I'm waiting for the Lite.

Price is a relatively large factor when I buy games, but it all really comes down to how much I want it. If the PS3 was released right now, I would no doubt start saving up the $800 or whatever it is to buy it. I'm sure a lot of people are the same way. As for the market as a whole though, I'm not so sure. I don't think the market for handhelds would simply come to a stop, but rather just become super exclusive. Maybe the only people you'd see with handhelds would be 10 year olds who scream and kick until they get what they want.

DonMarco · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 349 Location: 33903

Even with the new bare-bones PSPs coming out (for $200) the regular old "Value Pack" PSP is still $250. I don't see it budging an inch until the new DS lite is released. It'd be nice if the old DS was phased out at a cheaper $100 and the lite at $150, but I know it's not going to happen. It didn't happen in Japan, and it didn't happen with the Game Boy Micro. (it's two words, Persona).

The DS $130, DS Lite $150,PSP $200 and the PSP bundle $250. Crowded?

If also exagerated, and the Lite went on sale for say $300... It's still $200 cheaper than the PSP bundle pack, $100 less than the PSP core pack, and a mere $40 more than the DS. And if you can shrug and say it's not bad for an imaginary extra $40, then there's a good stinking chance the DS Lite will launch at $169.99.

Yeah but $150 all but guaranteed, right?
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Collector of over 1,538 strategy guides. That's weird, right?

Persona-sama · Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:47 pm Post subject:

This makes me wonder about the used game market. That is, if consoles/portables costed half a grand, would the market for used systems be that much more affluent?

But then, for that to happen, there has to be enough initial buyers to create stock. Hm. :/
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simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

Here's my deal: I'd buy a PSP at up to $300 if it came with a 1-2 gig memory card and games ran along the DS pricing scheme, and I'd probably buy a ton of games for it too at those rates. I heard rumors of a PSP revision with some large amount of internal memory included; if that's the case I might be interested but I'll still wait for a price drop.

Funny thing is, I've already spent $500 on DS hardware (Lost the first one, bought a second and Lik-Sang still has my preorder for the DS Lite... somewhere...). But I honestly like that system so much more that I didn't buy it just for the existing and immediately forthcoming games, but for the possibility of the platform as a whole. The PSP will always be just a small console in my mind (and a seriously flawed one at that, for this first version), and I find it much harder to be excited about, even if they do eventually put out some quality non-port software.

The biggest factor for me may be those game prices though. I've got a pretty gigantic DS library right now, all things considered. This is largely because I (generally) appreciate the software more than what's out for PSP right now, but it's also definitely aided me in impulse buying; for the $30-45 used PSP games tend to go for, I'd never buy something like Pac-Pix or Pac n' Roll, but at $15-20 I own both.

dhex · Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 10:24 pm Post subject:

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

GSL · Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 1:22 am Post subject:

I think you mean

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

GSL · Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:05 am Post subject:

*Gasp*! Shaper! You-you're not... one of THEM, are you??

...okay, okay, I'll admit I have a KOF '96 cart waiting for when I get my supergun up and running. I don't suppose you know anyone trying to get rid of a working 1- or 2- slot board, do you?

Ryan - SuperWes' Bane · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:38 am Post subject:

I've heard that UMD's are going to be discontinued too, so that's another hit for Sony. I think it was kinda cool that the GBA advance and DS are selling those movies built into cartridges, and I think putting their main focus on the games is a much better selling point than being a multimedia system. PSP promised too much and didn't deliver. All the good games are going to come out when it's far too late (I hear they are bringing out some of the FF games on there too, but who cares, right?). And it's possible to put your own movies on memory cards and watch them on your PSP, right? So why would you care to buy an UMD then? Just go on bit torrent and DL something.

I really don't believe that the PSP will be around for more than another year. By 2008 it will fade away into infamy and the DS will be the 500 lb gorrila still rampaging at christmas time. And why do I find the first DS system's design better than the Lite? Sure it's bigger, but it doesn't feel or seem as cheap. Maybe I should actually buy one to play games on.