The Old Razor and Blades Trick
There’s a classic business model, often called the ‘razor and blades’ strategy. You sell the razor cheap to lock customers in, then make your real money selling them an endless supply of blades. For years, console gaming has worked on a similar principle. The hardware was often a loss leader, a subsidised gateway to the far more profitable world of software. Now, with the gateway itself becoming more expensive, consumer behaviour may well adapt.
When faced with a pricier console, do gamers simply throw their hands up and take up knitting? I highly doubt it. Instead, they’re more likely to stick with their current hardware for longer. And what do you do when you’re not buying a new machine? You buy more things for the one you already own. More games, more downloadable content, more digital bells and whistles. The spending doesn’t stop, it just gets redirected.