Bundles Up for Winter

Recently in the videogame business there has been a lot of emphasis on selling bundles. While some bundles are great value for consumers, they tend to be the exception to the rule. This week, Sony has reported that the PSP Daxter pack sold over two million units worldwide, that is a substantial number for a 3 year old system. So what makes gamers fork out more money for a system that comes with things you may or may not want? Lets see, the Daxter pack comes with Ready At Dawn’s Daxter which was released March 14th 2006, it comes with an Ice Silver PSP Slim and Lite, a copy of the UMD movie Family Guy: The Freakin’ Sweet Collection, and a 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo.

I think the boys (and girls) down at Sony have definitely done their advertising homework on this one. First off the game Daxter is a spinoff of the Jax and Daxter franchise created by Naughty Dog, this game was Ready At Dawn’s first game and received very favorable reviews. The Ice Silver PSP Slim and Lite is the sleekest incarnation of the PSP to date, and by including a color other than black for their PSP, sony gets gamers with the original PSP Phat to notice both the new design and upgrades along with the new color options. Family Guy is an Emmy Award winning show currently rated 9 in the top 25 syndicated Television shows with an audience of over 6 million viewers, and the 1GB Memory stick retails for about $30.00 alone.

Now you may say “well it’s a great deal” and yes it is, but if the bundle included the same PSP but with a 512MB memory stick and copies of Shrek The Third’s movie and game would you be buying then? Sony has made a smart move by taking items that are selling well on their own and putting them together so you will go “well I can afford $30.00 more.” What do you guys think? Is Sony’s bundle strategy keeping their sales high 3 years after the handheld’s release or are gamers just investing because of the new PSP Slim and Lite?