Sony Brings Game Streaming to PS3

            Video game companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft often find themselves asking “How will we sell our games and consoles that are for out-of-date models once our newest product is released”. Well Sony is about to take a stab at this issue with its PlayStation 3. Now that PlayStation 4 has been on the market for a while, sales have significantly slowed for older games available on the PlayStation 3 as gamers are upgrading their systems rather than buying older games. Sony’s solution to this problem is to make a large list of around 100 PlayStation 3 games stream over their PlayStation Network. This allows people who own a PlayStation 3 to access any of these titles without a disk for $19.99 a month (similar to having Game Fly, but specifically for your system and with a better selection available). This not only attracts the PlayStation 3 consumers due to convenience, but also enables them to save countless dollars on games. Sony is using a bold strategy in doing this as they are selling the use of these games at a heavy discount in hopes that it will boost activity of sales significantly enough that they still make a large profit margin.

This online game streaming introduced by Sony will however offer them little risk as it significantly reduces their cost of producing physical games and cases. Uploading the games to the PlayStation 3 Network will take some initial capital, but much less than the amount it would cost to produce so many games that they offer that they may or may not sell in video game stores. It is definitely a wise decision to install this sales strategy as sales of all goods recently has been shifting toward more online-based and lacking sales in person at stores so this should benefit their game sales. When sales of an older system are slacking, it makes a lot of sense to me to accommodate the consumer and make the product more readily available. This PlayStation 3 video game gallery will become available on May 12^th and I suspect sales will be pretty high. To attract potential customers Sony is offering a 7-day free trial to any PlayStation 3 owners who have not yet signed up for the service. I presume most if not all customers who use the free trial will purchase at least one month of the game streaming service for $19.99. They also will be offering the newer games for PlayStation 3 at a one-time extra cost. This essentially is the same thing as buying these games at the store, but makes it available digitally and without the hassle of the CD. Sony is the first video game company to attempt this strategy so it will be interesting to see how it works out for them. I would not be surprised if both Microsoft and Nintendo make an effort to offer a similar online gaming service as they always try to keep their consoles on a level playing field.