Sony CEO on PS5 sales: "Absolutely everything is sold"

[koblongata]

I find consoles don't excite me anymore really... I decided to go all in on Quest 2 for my family... So much more with it...

 

[Austinturner]

If I had a limited supply and huge demand, I would increase the price until I only just cleared my inventory. All these day 1 stock outs and people reselling privately are just a clear sign that there are enough people willing to pay higher prices.

The book Monetizing Innovation does a great job at explaining that stock outs are a failure to set prices appropriately.

I would love there to be more supply and lower prices, but higher prices will encourage investment in supply faster than stock outs.

 

[scavengerspc]

Another Holiday launch failure (not just Sony).

I would have thought these tech first, customers last companies would have figured out to launch in the late Spring. All will sell out then the lines have 8 to 9 months to stabilize. I swear "you can't fix stupid" was created for the tech industry.

 

[Austinturner]

Another Holiday launch failure (not just Sony).

I would have thought these tech first, customers last companies would have figured out to launch in the late Spring. All will sell out then the lines have 8 to 9 months to stabilize. I swear "you can't fix stupid" was created for the tech industry.

Maybe they are afraid of their competitors doing a refresh after them and going into the holidays with a better product and more attention? That is my assumption anyway.

 

[ZackL04]

Covid has destroyed manufacturing in all fields. I persoanlly work for a low voltage contractor that sells TVs. I cannot get my hands on any quality Sony or Samsung TV’s right now as manufacturing is down a heavy percentage but demand is up. Ive been told to wait until next year.

Same issue with AV receivers, Yamaha and Denon are mostly cleared out as well.

 

[Endymio]

I would have thought these tech first, customers last companies would have figured out to launch in the late Spring. All will sell out then the lines have 8 to 9 months to stabilize. I swear "you can't fix stupid" was created for the tech industry.

You have a very odd definition of "stupid". They're making tens of billions of dollars, while selling every widget they can possibly produce; every business's dream.

Waiting till Spring would cost them a fortune in lost sales and excess inventory costs. Now that would be stupid.

 

[scavengerspc]

You have a very odd definition of "stupid". They're making tens of billions of dollars, while selling every widget they can possibly produce; every business's dream.

And we all know that wouldn't be the same if they sold the exact same amount in the Spring (As a planned launch date)? That's really stupid.

 

[Endymio]

And we all know that wouldn't be the same if they sold the exact same amount in the Spring (As a planned launch date)? That's really stupid.

But of course, they wouldn't sell anywhere near as many in the Spring. They'd miss the holiday season entirely, and most of the Covid-winter surge also. Not to mention the excess inventory carrying charges that the delay would incur. Meanwhile, their competitors would be filling all that demand that they're passing up.

People who've never spent five minutes of rational thought on a subject shouldn't attempt to advise those who've made a career of it. Missing the holidays on a console launch is the very definition of stupid.

 

[scavengerspc]

But of course, they wouldn't sell anywhere near as many in the Spring

No. They would sell out. In seconds. With months to spare before the holidays.

And meanwhile, their competitors would be filling all that demand that they're passing up.

Being first has never, ever solidified a #1 position in sales year over.
It didnt help Genesis (though it was close)
It didnt help Saturn.
It didnt help Xbox 360.

Missing the holidays on a console launch is the very definition of stupid.

They wouldnt be missing the holidays. They would be 7 or 8 months early. Plenty of time to get ready.

In case you havent noticed, you missed the point of my original post. Im just giving you a chance to catch up to the group. See if you can get it.

 

[Edster]

If I had a limited supply and huge demand, I would increase the price until I only just cleared my inventory. All these day 1 stock outs and people reselling privately are just a clear sign that there are enough people willing to pay higher prices.

The book Monetizing Innovation does a great job at explaining that stock outs are a failure to set prices appropriately.

I would love there to be more supply and lower prices, but higher prices will encourage investment in supply faster than stock outs.

Yes, Sony and MS can conceivably sell their launch consoles at very high price, but can they handle the bad press they going to get from it if one of them is the evil money grabbing company, then when stock returns and there is a choice, people could stay away from one or the other. Sony thought their clout from PS2 meant the public can stomach the PS3 price, Microsoft misjudged on how digital ready the public is with X1. Their missteps made them loose significant market share, neither will make the same mistake again. You also have to consider the bulk of the sales from a console is not the physical console, but the digital goods and the accessories. Having bigger market share here is more important than profit from the consoles itself.

Also, the investment part, you got to now think whether this current shortage is a short term thing, or a long term thing. There is the balance between what is over demand, and what is under supply due to uncontrollable circumstance. For instance, this time last year, people thought there is a significant under production of face mask but in reality once most people panic bought, there is actually not that much of a deficit and investing in new masks factory isn't such a great idea. I am no insider, but I wager that the significant under supply is more to do with Covid than with actual low level of production, Which in that case, over investment would be the wrong route.

Lastly, this is high tech stuff, investment in this sector more or less comes to fruition come basically next gen,which would happen anyway as new factories will obviously try and manufacture next gen tech; this is not a build a factory and you can instantly churn out more consoles especially when demands for consoles are not constant throughout the life cycle. There is a reason why most more tech brands, except for like Samsung, don't own their production/manufacturing facilities, whereas the darkest days of AMD is when they owned their fabrication facilities; it is a distraction and ties up money that can be used in other areas.

 

[Endymio]

Being first has never, ever solidified a #1 position in sales year over.

You mean, except for the PS4, which beat XBox One to market and led in sales since? Or Uber beating Lyft to market? Or literally a million other examples from the business world? The competitive advantage given by being first to market is a basic tenet of business management. But then, I guess all those professors and billionaire entrepreneurs are all wrong, eh?

They wouldnt be missing the holidays. They would be 7 or 8 months early. Plenty of time to get ready.

This may be your most asinine remark yet. Yes, you figured out that Christmas rolls around every year. Congratulations. But next year, the PS5 will not be a hot new console. Buzz will have died down. Microsoft would have sold tens of millions of consoles in the interim, and those buyers would have bought enormous quantities of XBox games, forcing studios to focus more resources there. PC graphics would advance another year, making consoles just a bit less attractive. And Sony would have paid carrying charges on tens of millions of rapidly-depreciating consoles.

You seem to have missed that a hyped product shortage is a benefit for the manufacturer. It increases the perceived value of the unit, not to mention generating enormous amounts of free advertising, in the form of stories like the one you're posting to now. What you call "stupid" is a literal gold mine for Sony.

 

[scavengerspc]

You mean, except for the PS4, which beat XBox One to market and led in sales since?

I didn't say it didn't happen only that it is far from a guarantee. Please stop giving your opinions on things people didn't say. I assure you a lot of people are tired of it.

You seem to have missed that a hyped product shortage is a benefit for the manufacturer

And you seemed to have missed that my post was a hypothetical. That maybe once tech could consider the benefit of a much earlier release so a ton of kids dont have to miss out for the Holiday. Missed good will can be detriment to $$ also.

Yes. I strung you out.

 

[fadingfool]

I suspect both Sony and Microsoft are kicking themselves that they didn't add an extra $100 to the RRP.

 

[poohbear]

But then there's the kids who will want Switch and can't get one.

Forget the PS5/ Xbox.

Parents will have no choice but to spend $1000 on Ebay to get one.

or just tell the kids it's not available, why create self-entitled princes/princesses? They can find other things to entertain themselves with.

Personally, I got a used GTX 1080ti for super cheap when the RTX3000 series launched. I'm shocked they're going for so cheap, but that's the way of this industry. The GTX 1080ti is still an awesome gaming card for 1440p.

 

[Endymio]

I didn't say it didn't happen only that it is far from a guarantee.

You said, to quote: "being first has never, ever solidified a #1 position in sales ". Stop trolling and demonstrate a little intellectual honesty.

 

[scavengerspc]

You said, to quote: "being first has never, ever solidified a #1 position in sales "

And I was right. I then gave examples of when being first in the console industry didn't help. So again, I didn't say it didn't happen only that it is far from a guarantee.

 

[Endymio]

And I was right. I then gave examples of when being first in the console industry didn't help. So again, I didn't say it didn't happen

Your pseudo-logic backflips are making us all dizzy. "Never ever" means "never ever". You certainly did say it didn't happen.

As for your examples, why they're wrong also. Being first to market did help the XBox 360. It led the PS4 from its initial release in 2005 all the way to the end of 2018. It took 13 years of missteps by Microsoft and adroit execution by Sony to overcome that first-to-market advantage.

 

[scavengerspc]

Your pseudo-logic backflips are making us all dizzy. "Never ever" means "never ever"

Look up the word solidify. Once again I will tell you that it never ever solidifies (IE Locks in) the #1 position.

Being first to market did help the XBox 360.

Because it was a good system, except for, you know. So I will repeat. Look up the word solidify. Once again being first is no guarantee of the #1 position.

 

[Austinturner]

Yes, Sony and MS can conceivably sell their launch consoles at very high price, but can they handle the bad press they going to get from it if one of them is the evil money grabbing company.

Also, the investment part, you got to now think whether this current shortage is a short term thing, or a long term thing. There is the balance between what is over demand, and what is under supply due to uncontrollable circumstance. I am no insider, but I wager that the significant under supply is more to do with Covid than with actual low level of production, Which in that case, over investment would be the wrong route.

Lastly, this is high tech stuff, investment in this sector more or less comes to fruition come basically next gen,which would happen anyway as new factories will obviously try and manufacture next gen tech; this is not a build a factory and you can instantly churn out more consoles especially when demands for consoles are not constant throughout the life cycle.

I will admit I had the CPUs and GPUs in mind more than the consoles, I didn’t see nvidia’s high prices last generation hurting demand this generation and I doubt Intel will see demand hit to past pricing practices either.

My assumption is that its basically a TSMC bottleneck for consoles (through AMD) and Radeon and Ryzen, therefore with all those coming together, the capacity issues are probably with us for easily 6 months and AMD could easily drop the price of ryzen and radeon mid next year without consequence. They couldn’t charge more to sony/MS due to contracts.

 

[ZipperBoi]

I sold my 3070 to a guy in Hawaii who was more than happy enough to pay me enough money to justify selling it to him and cover the shipping fee. I didn't "gouge" him, but if not for me, he'd never have been able to get it to complete his build.

Based on your logic, I was part of the problem simply because I lined up to buy (anything).

If you were behind me in line and I bought the last 3090, I was part of the problem as well.

Thing is, I had two computers to upgrade so the 3090 and 3080 purchase made sense. I also added back to the market selling back two 2080Ti's for not even $200 less than I purchased them for, since buying 2080ti's post 3080 release is still ridiculously overpriced.

I don't consider myself a scalper. I only got one of each and I will go right back to try for a 3060Ti.

My real gain was in making Youtube adventure videos going to get them.

The manufacturer needs to do the due diligence of making these units attainable and stopping the scalping.

Why do you want two gaming PCs? You certainly dont need two. This goes back to my point. You bought one to flip for someone to make a profit and used the other two..TWO for yourself. The manufacturer is assuming a normal person will be buying ONE card for themselves because thats all they actually need.