Sejan
Member
While I understand that these two companies felt pressure from each other to launch during the 2020 holiday season, I believe that launching in this time frame was the wrong move for a number of reasons.
1. Holiday seasons are no longer necessary for console launches. Holiday releases may have helped a less mature console market, but they are no longer necessary. The Switch released in March and easily sold 2 million units in its first month. Nintendo was more than able to drum up hype to sell their latest system well out of the normal launch timing. There is indication that Sony or MS would have had any problem selling their consoles at a different time of year.
2. A Spring launch would have allowed a release with a better stock situation. Clearly neither Sony nor MS were ready when it came to stock. Further, they don't appear to have the necessary factory capacity to match demand for a while still. On top of that, with Chinese New Year looming, its likely that the factories assembling these consoles will shut down (or at least reduce capacity) for at least a week and up to a month for this holiday season. This timing means that restocks will only become more scarce for the next few weeks.
3. Games weren't ready. Sony headlined a remake and an expanded remaster as their big launch games. MS had to delay their biggest launch game. 2-3 months would have put these consoles in a much better position when it came to launch software. It really is telling how much they were pushing backwards compatibility in the months leading to launch.
4. Releasing later would have possibly made the scalper situation a little better. With the additional demand created by launching just before Christmas, scalpers were more incentivized by the larger demand. Launching in an off month (with more stock) may have helped the situation that was undoubtedly worsened by desperate parents willing to pay more than $1000 for a PS5 that they promised to their 10 year old. Launching in a different season would have likely given their core audience at least a little more opportunity to pick one up without having to worry about the inflated demand that come with November and December. Even if scalpers still managed to buy a large portion of the stock in March, its likely that the price would have at least not been inflated as much as it has.
Both MS and Sony are in the unfortunate position of trying to hype up a product that won't be widely available for months to come. A few more months to better prepare for launch could have only helped the situation.
1. Holiday seasons are no longer necessary for console launches. Holiday releases may have helped a less mature console market, but they are no longer necessary. The Switch released in March and easily sold 2 million units in its first month. Nintendo was more than able to drum up hype to sell their latest system well out of the normal launch timing. There is indication that Sony or MS would have had any problem selling their consoles at a different time of year.
2. A Spring launch would have allowed a release with a better stock situation. Clearly neither Sony nor MS were ready when it came to stock. Further, they don't appear to have the necessary factory capacity to match demand for a while still. On top of that, with Chinese New Year looming, its likely that the factories assembling these consoles will shut down (or at least reduce capacity) for at least a week and up to a month for this holiday season. This timing means that restocks will only become more scarce for the next few weeks.
3. Games weren't ready. Sony headlined a remake and an expanded remaster as their big launch games. MS had to delay their biggest launch game. 2-3 months would have put these consoles in a much better position when it came to launch software. It really is telling how much they were pushing backwards compatibility in the months leading to launch.
4. Releasing later would have possibly made the scalper situation a little better. With the additional demand created by launching just before Christmas, scalpers were more incentivized by the larger demand. Launching in an off month (with more stock) may have helped the situation that was undoubtedly worsened by desperate parents willing to pay more than $1000 for a PS5 that they promised to their 10 year old. Launching in a different season would have likely given their core audience at least a little more opportunity to pick one up without having to worry about the inflated demand that come with November and December. Even if scalpers still managed to buy a large portion of the stock in March, its likely that the price would have at least not been inflated as much as it has.
Both MS and Sony are in the unfortunate position of trying to hype up a product that won't be widely available for months to come. A few more months to better prepare for launch could have only helped the situation.