I'm just a random scrub, but I think what we're seeing is Sony prioritizing the first rounds of manufacturing based on what they think their day-one buyers want utilizing their demographic data and as we move into the coming years you will see more of a supply of these.
- There isn't a massive difference in cost for them (I think zhuge said something like $20 for the player?)
- You have to purchase everything from them with the digital edition, and as such they recoup the amount in a few third party purchases.
- The market data already shows the trend towards all digital purchases
- With all three of these, they would make more money with the all digital so it makes no sense to not try and sell more of them.
So I don't really agree that it's a push to get people to buy the "more expensive console" because in the end it seems they will be making less from the disc-based console over time. However I don't know trend differences between attach rates with people who prefer physical over digital.
Could they be doing this as a way to get people who don't know the differences between the consoles to buy the expensive one thinking it is the "best" this holiday season? Maybe, but seems more that they just prioritized based off what they felt their early adopter population would want.
