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You have to wonder whether Sony is using the same strategy to generate more long term interest in a product that was "sold out" and "scarce". How do you mean?

• LeifCarrotson 10y ago
  That's exactly the point! You, and the media, perceive all these stores being sold out as implying that the product is super-popular and special. Someone who didn't plan to buy the product will see this scarcity and think that it's incredibly popular, and maybe want to jump on the bandwagon. However, there's not necessarily a scarcity at the source - they could have a large number of units in Sony warehouses. Then, a week after they sold out on initial launch, and people are hearing stories from their friend iamdave and from the Times that the PSVR is incredibly popular and hard to find, they can ship those warehouse units to the stores and suddenly even more people can purchase a PSVR.
  • karmelapple 10y ago
    It could be the case. And if so, hey, if it's working to sell more, kudos to their PR department. But as someone else posted, selling a million in a short time frame certainly seems like success. Whether there's artificial pent-up demand or not, they've sold quite a few considering the price of it all.
  • iamdave 10y ago
    You, and the media, perceive all these stores being sold out as implying that the product is super-popular and special. I can only speak for myself here, so take it however you want to, but going to four stores and all of them being sold out-honest to God my only thought was-oh okay, they're out, on to the next store. Legitimately the "hype" factor for me was playing a space dogfighting game at a friend's house, falling in love with the experience (as I'm a longtime fan of the EVE Online series, and Valkyrie was made by the same production team) and deciding "Hey, I want one of these for myself". So I somewhat get your point, but I'm not entirely sure I'm convinced enough of how true it is to agree with it. And even if that's what Sony did...it appears to be working for them. The appeal to PSVR is that it doesn't require the investment of some PC-oriented gaming rigs necessary to render games twice for a functioning VR experience; the PS4 is already a successful and popular platform; Sony rolled the dice and got lucky 7's with PSVR.
  • anigbrowl 10y ago
    That assumes that consumers respond solely to availability signals. In reality people also talk to each other online a lot, so if a product was actually mediocre then artificial scarcity wouldn't provide that great of a boost to sales.
• thrillgore 10y ago
  And it's ridiculous because I want to buy a PSVR now and the longer this artificial shortage continues the less interested I grow and may settle for a Daydream to get my fix.
  • cstejerean 10y ago
    Check out Amazon Prime Now if it's available in your area. All other stores were sold out but Prime Now had inventory so I was able to get a PSVR bundle delivered to my door within an hour.
    • iamdave 10y ago
      That was what I resorted to, exactly how it played out. Every store nearby was out, went home, put in an order, had it 58 minutes later to the second.
      • cstejerean 10y ago
        And it wasn't just the PlayStation VR. For example the Echo was sold out on Amazon right before the holidays but you could get it within an hour on Prime Now. I suspect Amazon is doing this on purpose to get people to try Prime Now. That was probably the first purchase I made on Prime Now and I've since made quite a few purchases. When I used to need something right away I would drive to Best Buy or a nearby store. Now I first check Prime Now before going anywhere else.