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Activision CEO Says $199 Consoles Necessary
Carlos Bergfeld
13
Although Nintendo's Wii console has already seen fairly substantial consumer adoption, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said recently at the Reuters Media Summit that even the Wii will need to drop in price before it hits mass-market appeal.

"In the next 24 months they all will need to be at that $199 price point, and you can imagine Nintendo will be down to the $129 price point over the next few years," Kotick said.

Kotick said the Wii's early success despite being relatively underpowered is indicative of its low $249.99 price trumping technological advances in the eyes of the consumer. The lowest priced Xbox 360 model sells for $279.99, while the cheapest PS3 comes in at $399.99.

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  • zerog83 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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    November 28, 2007 12:09 PM

    I'd be willing to bet it's not $250 - $400 consoles keeping video games from hitting mass market appeal, but high prices on the games themselves. Anyone who purchases a console, does so knowing that over the useful life of that system (generally 5 years) they will most likely spend that amount of cash on games and peripherals alone. I've definitely spent at least $500 on my XBox 360 games/controllers, and probably over $1,000 on PlayStation 2 games and periphs.

    • X-GOUKI legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      November 28, 2007 12:27 PM

      i was about to say the same thing. the whole $60 games or $70+ for a collectors ed. is what keeps my from buying games on consoles the day it comes out. last one i did was halo3 and the collectors ed (w/out the helmet) was not worth the extra $10

      • vertigo2x legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        November 28, 2007 1:53 PM

        If you use a life argument, take a look at the price of a game. You are paying $60 for something you will probably spend at least 40 jhours on. Thats $1.25 an hour you are plpaying...talk about cheap entertainment.

    • maddy legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      November 28, 2007 8:10 PM

      I don't think that's entirely right. I think the way the Wii hardware is selling out while most of the games don't move too many copies is indicative of another problem not strictly tied to cost.

      I've heard a bunch of non-gamers use phrases like "playing Wii" to mean playing Wii Sports. The idea of buying a discrete game is still a little weird for some folks. I think part of the issue is game stores being not-so-mainstream-friendly, which then puts huge importance on a game pack-in (e.g. Wii Sports). I don't think many of these people do think about what games cost, and how many games they'll buy over a console's lifetime. They buy a Wii, maybe they buy a Guitar Hero box, and that's their purchase.

      While games certainly are too expensive, I think online distribution straight to the console will really shake things up.

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