Max_DC - You seem to think the import market is bigger than it really is, lol. Sony didn't lose much on this, nor will they. If you think all of the regular consumers who have never bought in import in their life (remember, there are over 100million users who have owned PS1's and PS2's in the past)...then you're confused.
I'd say, just off the top of my head, the import market is *maybe* 5% of that number.
What ? I said like 20 times that Sony shouldn't care about imports because they won't affect their profits. And why don't they affect their profits ? Because only a few freaks are willing to pay more money for games they can't fully understand ( Japanese language)... 5%? Never. Maybe 1%, if at all.
And a 1300 dollar PS3 means another massive decrease, at least on the hardware side.
If Sony loses that 5%, they'll make it up somewhere else, more than likely with people who want a cheap Blu-Ray player.
Well while that is correct, it's not really an argument for Sony to stop their actions against imports... you know because they could save the 5% they lose with imports and rise prices at the same tme, which would mean even more profits.
Fact is, your "thoughts" on this bad "PR" hurting Sony is humorous, at best. The "internets" (yenno, the forum goers) make up such a small portion of the community, it's ridiculous. And most of the "internets" who are complaining about it, don't even import! It's just a band wagon fiasco, but you know what? When the next Metal Gear, Tekken, Devil May Cry, Socom, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy, etc come out, people WILL buy the consoles, even if they are playing the crying game because they couldn't import such and such.
Ah I don't know. I mean yeah you have a point, but you could also see it this way : the true fans, the diehard freaks get all their info in the internet. And those are the guys the average joe asks when he wants to get info. I get asked about games all the times by friends and people I know, simply because I know a lot about them. And I will tell those stories.
Also, don't forget game magazines : They will mention it, at least here in Germany.
Note that I didn't say that Sony will make huge losses because of a the massive effect of this Sony-VS-imports thing on their sales. All I said was, that it has a tiny little effect. A very small effect, maybe 0.3 %. But how big is the import market really ? And it's not that I steal games by importing, they still make profits, just not as much in every region, but still they are earning money. So if that sub 1 % import market will collpse and break down to maybe 0,5% they wouldn't really win anything with their behavior. If you also consider the fact that imports in the first 6 months costs like 200+% of the domestic prices, then there is no 1% import market, but maybe a 0,1 % market.
It get's a little confusing, so I'll give you a simple example of what I want to say :
Take a thief in a department store. He is 65 years old and steals some food worth maybe 50 dollars. Ok, now what Microsoft and Nintendo ( as metaphorical store owners ) do, is installing a few cameras in order to avoid massive thefts.
And what does Sony ? They send a 200 pound guy right in front of the shop and that guy beats the cra* out of the thief. Sure, they got their food back, but one or two customers who watched the scene won't come back.
Not only that... offering a region code free PS3 is like putting a sign in front of the department store, which says : "Thiefs come here, please take whatever you want without paying!". It gets even worse. That thief was a customer for 40 years ( since people who import usually spend a lot of money on videogames, more than the average joe)
Also, the reason for the PS3 being region free has nothing to do with importers. Again, you have probably never looked at the big picture, ever in your life. The REASON it's region free is so Sony can produce ONE SKU. ONE. They don't need to spend extra time and money making additional models to ship to different territories. They make one PS3 and ship it around the globe, the Blu-Ray region lock is in firmware. This saves ENORMOUS amounts of time and money, and increases profitability.
So thank you for your enlightenment, Jesus Worldunderstander. Until this very moment I thought that Sony loves grey imports
But what you say is the big picture you made up in your mind. And it's wrong, so wrong. Uhhhh one SKU - so what ? They still neeed a different firmware, a different voltage convertor / power unit, a different manual, a different sticker on the back of the console ( In German, in French, In "Insert language" together with very special emblems : In germany we have several special german emblems on every electronic device ), a diffeerent package and I could go on for hours. And a region code lock is also a software thing, just as the firmware.
I tell you why they made it region code free. First of all its marketing. It just sounds good ( hey I could get games from everywhere....NOT).
And the main reason, and here is your big picture, is PIRACY. THAT makes Sony lose 30% profits. And when their console is region code free NO modchip designer can say : "What ? Piracy? Nooo, we just want to help people with playing import games from Japan" That is a perfect base for any trial against those companies.
It's not that I don't understand Sony to a certain degree. Still I think it's the wrong way of dealing with problems.
However, the fact is, that most *games* will be region locked through software. Sony has stated this, Acclaim has also backed it IIRC, as well as a few other select developers. For THIS reason, importing a PS3 would be useless, since you may or may not be able to play all your games.
Except it's a bit bigger.
