Wouldn't it be better for everyone if the retailers adjusted the prices? At least then, the incentive to be a reseller/scalper would diminish to nothing, which means you don't pay for their premium.
I think it's for the same reason why car manufacturers don't like it when dealers sell over MSRP; it hurts the long term customer relationship. Higher MSRP means fewer buyers which means fewer services, repairs, etc.
More expensive consoles means fewer owners, fewer people buying console games and subscriptions.
But if you're selling them faster than you can make them, this isn't really true.
If you buy a car for 50k, and it's 30k 6 months later, while still being a new model, you feel screwed by the company, and next time, you'll delay your purchase until the price drop (even if the price is a good price and won't drop). As before, if the price drops after a new model comes out, people understand that, but if the price drops regularly after a few months the product is out, that's a whole different story.
Which isn’t quite as bad as pure scalping but what they add is often high margin product.
What would be nice is to see more “proceeds over retail to charity” type deals.
Even if the price moves suddenly and they're forced to take a haircut, the low barrier to entry means other resellers can enter the market.
- Sales figures (units shipped) are a marketing point. A product being so in demand that it makes the news is a free marketing campaign.
- Retailer got so many units to sell at a margin/price they already decided on. The fact that the stock moved out the door is a win already. Customers coming inside to find out that there are no PS5s are customers inside the shop.
- It seems likely that Sony/whoever may have some control over the pricing. Whether this is a formal agreement or a gentle suggestion, ignoring or breaking that deal would presumably (at least) sour the relationship.
- Surely the retailer that moves first would lose business to their competitors. I guess at that point, the competitor/s run out of stock and now the first mover is the scalper?
- If we're assuming that the retailers have some altruistic motive, they could implement strategies to combat the bots / buying en masse. This does not appear to be something they are interested in.
> Wouldn't it be better for everyone if the retailers adjusted the prices?
The people who are already priced out will be in the same situation, except now it's the "good guys" doing price gouging. The scalpers will have lost their business to the retailer I guess.
They have - you could buy a console bundled with a game, headset and a tshirt for huge markups.