Sony Bribes Gamestop to sell More PS3’s
By Jonathan on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 1:12 AM PST In Sony
Better watch your back the next time you’re in Gamestop. Someone’s put a bounty on your head, and that someone is Sony. It seems the company has struck a deal with Gamestop to run a little contest between stores. Each month, the store manager of each district that sells the most Playstation 3’s above a certain number will receive 20,000 points which can be redeemed on a Gamestop Rewards site. That many points is worth approximately $350 in gaming goods. That sounds like a good enough incentive for a Gamestop manager to put more pressure on their customers to buy the machine.
It’s obvious Sony is having some trouble selling their $600 console, but do they really need to resort to badgering their customers? They were finally starting to show some promise when they announced a whole bunch of good looking games for later this year, and now they start in with the crazy marketing schemes that are just going to drive people insane.
So having a publicly known plan is considered bribery? Noted. (So what then would you call a secret plan to do something similar?)
Maybe with that $350 they can finally get that PS3 they’ve been wanting.
this is common practice in all areas of retail in which salesman approach you on the shop floor. do your research first and make your mind up before entering the store. that way it is certain to be your own decision.
for the record, i own the ps3 and it is superb. my ps2 games look like new with the ps3’s new enhanced display smoothing. i’m now counting the days to gta iv, mgs 4, heavonly sword and army of two. meanwhile, i will make do with elder scrolls: oblivion.
I’m an ex-EBGames employee I quit my job years ago, and This type of marketting is nothing new, it’s been going on for ages, and Sony whenever they paid us to VOM their product(Vendor of the Month) for those less inclined… they didn’t care if we told the truth about everything, Xbox rep would come in, on their VOM whenever they paid us they told us to sell xbox, try not to mention ps2.. try not to mention gamecube, mention xbox …. xbox … xbox… I got sick of this, and actually got into trouble from higher ups, when looking after a customers concerns of having enough kids games for their family, telling them to buy a gamecube or ps2, because there was a ton more variety on those systems, especially for children or family gaming. I will not fold under corporate pressure, I saw fit to quit my job for the greater good.
I suppose what I meant by my last post was, If I had to say which VOM I preferred it was Nintendo and Sony, they were always so pleasant, no matter how much of their systems/software sold during (VOM period) and they weren’t ever ashamed to encourage us to be honest and look after a customer’s needs even if it meant talking them out of buying their system, above all Sony wanted the customers to be aware of the truth of their products, but didn’t want us to force feed them Sony stuff… that’s Microsoft’s gig.
Yep. nothing new here. It’s not even exclusive to the gaming industry. In all types of retail, stores are paid premiums to sell x number of y product. It’s not always in cash either. Some companies base future discount rates on wholesale purchases on past sales performance. Isn’t retail fun?
What else Sony should do apart from showing upcoming game trailers and previews of Home? They hv lost it. Make more games like exclusives inorder to survive with Nintendo and Microsoft. $600 is way too high. Who wants to spend that much money on a gaming console to watch Blu Ray movies. It’s utter crap Sony. Reduce the price and make more games. Their is no point in bribing any gamestop manager’s to sell ur system. Customers will buy ur system and after 1 month they ain’t gonna touch ur system and starts to curse at u and praises Nintendo and Microsoft.
To whomever wrote this article: This is common practice. You are ignorant.
Oh and Transporter stop whining about what you can’t afford. Lmfao Sony survive? We all seem to forget who kicked who’s ass with the PS and PS2 to the tune of 200,000,000+. Its hilarious to see the same whiners bashing the PS brand after years of abuse. Karma isn’t limited to one go around.
So don’t worry the morons who bought the DS and the Wii will get theirs too. Go jump off a cliff. You are ruining the industry by slowing down graphical/AI progression with Nintendogs, Brain Age, Trauma Center, etc.
Okay, look people. Of course this is common practice. I used to work for Blockbuster and we had little contests to see who could sell the most movie passes. That’s not new. What is new is that Gamestop is now gunning for PS3 sales. That’s my point: prepare to shield yourself from a sales pitch the next time you’re in Gamestop. They used to swing more towards Xbox, but now they’re going the other way. And it’s not publicly known, as this information apparently came from someone working there now. It’s not like they’re going to advertise, “Hey everybody, we want you to buy this game console because it helps us win stuff.” Also, “anything given or serving to persuade or induce” is considered a bribe, which is essentially what this is (via Dictionary.com). Read a book.
For the record, people, I currently own a Wii and a PS2, both of which I use quite regularly. I’m also seriously considering throwing down the cash for a PS3, but only when it’s actually worth that $600. By Christmas time, there will finally be a slew of good games out for it (hell, MGS4 alone is worth that much to me). Right now though, there are only two games out that I’m interested in — Resistance: Fall of Man, and Virtua Fighter 5 — which are not worth that much to me. If all my technological purchases came down to hardware, I’d only buy Mac computers. But I don’t, because they just don’t have the software I want.
Christ, I had a feeling this one was going to set the fanboys off.
You idiot. Not even in retail, we (manufacture of PC PSUs) “bribes” distributors and wholesellers’ sales team to sell more of our products over our competitors, by offering incentives, cash, even, sometimes.
Obviously you haven’t even cracked into elementary of sales & marketing field.
I love my PS3 by the way. There are reasons why Sony, as a company, can sell 100 million PS2s. And with that kind of installed based already established, even though it’s a prior system, may indirectly add to PS3’s momentum as they finally get good games out. And they will. Case in point: Final Fantasy XIII, tide, will turn, worldwide. Sony will get the last laugh. This system is future proof and expendable(Eye of Judgment). It’s so much easier to emulate Wii’s main strength by PS3 then it is for Wii to copy PS3, which it can’t, so it needs to rely on short-term innovations, it will play out, unfortunately that’s human nature, I know, because my Wii is already gathering dust. The key, is that, is not that ppl don’t want to buy PS3, is just that price is high. IF they lower price and no one buys, then Sony will have a problem. Cases in point: Neo-Geo, Sega Genesis, and GameCube. Lastly, Xbox360 didn’t even come up par in avg units sold in same time period length compared to Sony, when, they both started out.
Oh oops, that’s getting into Financial Analysis, don’t know if you are knowledgeable in that field either.
Forgot to proof read, as I try to make quick points. If I sound like a enligh degenerate, sorry.
Screw the PS3 fanboys and their rants due to taking this article so emotionally and becoming ofended by it. Screw them! I’m not an ex-employee from any of those gaming stores and therefore didn’t know that when I visited those stores I was being given a bias sales pitch. Thanks to articles like this one, I will be wiser to their tactics. Now I know why when I tried to buy GameCube stuff for my niece who owns said system and wanted games for it, I was always told by the clerks or manager “you know, there is no future in the GameCube you’re better off buying an xbox”. I always told them, “not interested. Where’s the GameCube section?” and they would say “alright it’s your loss. It’s over there in the back. Waaay in the back”. Later, when I would go up to pay for my stuff they would remind me again “sure you don’t want an Xbox?”… sh@t!
To: anyone who uses the excuse to not buy a PS3 because of no good games
Obviously you didn’t get in on the Warhawk 3 beta, but you’ll see, it’s a system seller.
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