Sony Hesitates to Release PlayStation 3 in Korea
Korea is the world’s test bed for IT products, so many companies release cutting-edge products in Korea first. Sony itself released the high-end digital camera DSC-F828 simultaneously in Japan and Korea in 2003. One month later the product was introduced in the U.S. and European market. So what’s the reason that Koreans are suddenly getting the short end of the stick? For one thing, sales of the game console in Korea are not profitable. The number of PS2s sold here was 1.1 million, but that did not translate into profit. PS2, which is in fact a kind of PC, sells at a mere $200, which means a loss for the maker. Instead, Sony makes profits by selling game titles. But in Korea, only about 1.9 game titles are sold annually per PS2 unit. The average price of game title is $45, and the average sale margin is 20 percent, Sony says. SCEK said the reason is that Korea has a big market for second-hand game titles. Of course, there is also the big problem of piracy.
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