- The published profit margins from Sony are misleading. They take maximal advantage of inflation, currency shifts, and generational overlap to create a picture of profitability that is well above whatever the 'real' figure might be.
- You're comparing the present to the past, instead of an alternative present. Given the very large increases in market size and reduction in competition I think there's little doubt a consumer friendly Sony could have easily doubled their sales, if not substantially more.
- The downward slope of anti-consumerism is not sustainable. You end up in a situation where you have to keep charging more and more for a product where demand keeps going lower and lower. Especially as we reach an era of declining fertility, there's only so many fools.
- Why would you even want to do this? Even if, and I think that's a huge if, Sony ended up more profitable than good behavior would have yielded, it's going to be by the thinnest of margins. And they've put themselves in a situation where they're now in an increasingly adversarial relationship with their own users. See companies like EA or Activision on the software side doing the same thing. I think there's some je ne sais pas to be had for leaders of a beloved companies, as opposed to leaders of yet another corporate bottom feeder.
- The published profit margins from Sony are misleading. They take maximal advantage of inflation, currency shifts, and generational overlap to create a picture of profitability that is well above whatever the 'real' figure might be.
- You're comparing the present to the past, instead of an alternative present. Given the very large increases in market size and reduction in competition I think there's little doubt a consumer friendly Sony could have easily doubled their sales, if not substantially more.
- The downward slope of anti-consumerism is not sustainable. You end up in a situation where you have to keep charging more and more for a product where demand keeps going lower and lower. Especially as we reach an era of declining fertility, there's only so many fools.
- Why would you even want to do this? Even if, and I think that's a huge if, Sony ended up more profitable than good behavior would have yielded, it's going to be by the thinnest of margins. And they've put themselves in a situation where they're now in an increasingly adversarial relationship with their own users. See companies like EA or Activision on the software side doing the same thing. I think there's some je ne sais pas to be had for leaders of a beloved companies, as opposed to leaders of yet another corporate bottom feeder.