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Cheaper Consoles = Industry Saved?

March 10th, 2009 at 2:35 pm · 6 Comments

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ActiBliz CEO Bobby Kotick is not a man known for playing a lot of games. However, his lack of gaming smarts is made up by his market smarts; after all, his complete familiarity with business sense (milking the f**k out of every franchise he can get his hands on, in layman’s terms) has propelled Guitar Hero to a very comfortable place in the gaming world, atop a plentiful pile of cash. That most of them suck is another matter, but I digress…

His comments on the prices of consoles got me thinking earlier though, if only because I was stuck for something to write about. See why over the jump as I ask: would you buy more consoles if they were cheaper?

Times, as we are probably all well aware, are pretty tough at the moment. They outright suck at the moment, what with the recession hanging over all of us like a bad smell and companies closing down left, right and center. This hasn’t stopped the gaming industry from performing well recently (despite a few casualties).

Could it be performing better, though? Speaking to newswire service Reuters, Bobby Kotick remarked that the costs of consoles hasn’t “gotten down to [a] mass-market price point.” He added, “I think when you’re in the economic circumstances that the world has found itself in, there really is a difference between a $199 game system and a $299 game system.”

Does the man have a point? Certainly, things are expensive at the moment (even more so relatively) but that doesn’t mean we’re not spending any money whatsoever. Games are still selling well, and consoles are being bought up in spades. Just look at how well the PS3 did in Japan because of the launch of Yakuza 3, and tell me that we’re not spending.

The thing is, if everything was just that little bit cheaper – consoles, games, accessories – would we buy more of them? If we slashed 10 bucks off the price of a normal game (and in the UK, if we were lucky, £10) and even better, if we slashed something like 50 dollars off of the price of a console such as the PS3, I think we’d see people buy a second console if they had a bit of cash to treat themselves with.

The current trend for spending is to spend on staying in, rather than going out. Movie sales, rentals, TVs, consoles, they’re all on the up, as we’re all choosing to stay inside more rather than go out, which can leave a nice big hole in your wallet.

Industries are still in trouble and companies aren’t making as much money as they once were; but if Sony were to slash the price of the PS3, and Microsoft cut the price of their games (for instance), would you buy more of them, or is Bobby talking BS?

Source: GamesIndustry.biz




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Tags: · ·
Categories: Editorial · News · PlayStation 3 · Wii · Xbox 360

  • yamstersbiggestfan

    Omg i love you yamster!!!!!!!!!!!111111one

  • http://www.sarcasticgamer.com Sean “Rothbart” Workman

    I rarely buy games at $60 right now Yamster, so yeah, I’d welcome $50 games… but know that my practices wouldn’t really change _THAT_ much, I’d probably buy a few $50 games at first and then settle down into buying them when they hit $40 or $30 instead of the $50 or $40 now.

    It would be good for the industry I think because the bottom line is if we dropped the price from $60 to $50, chances are more publishers would get money (unless you just happen to only buy games from one publisher). $300 spent on 6 games versus $300 spent on 5 games means the money is more likely to be spread around more. I hope that makes sense.

    Lowering game prices wouldn’t make be spend more total money, but my money would be spread more evenly. There… I could probably delete everything before that sentence and you’d still get my point. LOL!

  • http://www.twitter.com/basharteg BasharTeg

    Typically cutting prices means also cutting corners. I think if Sony were to eliminate the erroneous features on the PS3 in order to reduce the price, it would sell better. But which erroneous features actually translate to a higher cost? That’s the tough part. If Sony just took the clippers to the PS3 and cut out all the good stuff to lower the price by 50 bucks, the PS3 would completely tank and there’d be a lot of unhappy customers.

  • Kojin

    Would I buy more games and consoles if they were cheaper? Yes I would
    Would I spend more money overall on games and consoles if they were cheaper? I seriously doubt it.

    I do not have a PS3 or even a 360 simply because I simply never have the money I would need to be able to purchase one. However, what would Microsoft or Sony need to cut to make their consoles in the $199 to $299 range? Would we as gamers be willing to take whatever cuts the manufacturers have to make in order to make gaming devices cheaper?

    And back onto video games, how many games does the average gamer play now? Between school and my part time job, I have very little time to play video games anymore. Also, I have other interests other than video games so even when I could be playing I might be doing something else. I doubt I would buy many more games than I already do, even at a reduced price.

    However, we do have to take Valve’s Steam weekend and holiday sales into account here. When there is a sale, the game sells much better and actually makes a larger profit over that time period.
    But is that because we would buy more games at a reduced price, or is it because Steam is having a sale and gamers realize they should get that game now while it’s still cheaper? I know I have made an impulse purchase or two off Steam just because a game was on sale.

    In the end, I think the effects either way would be negligible. The only games that might be hurt by this would be the big name games like Halo, MGS, Killzone, etc because people are going to buy those games regardless; if the price was lowered, I actually doubt they would sell much more product and hence might lose money as an end result. This might help more experimental and indie games just because at a lower initial cost more people would be willing to take a chance.

  • JamPhotonSons

    I do have a desire for the PS3, and the thing stopping me is the cost. I think an extra £50 off the price would go a long way towards matching my budget

  • http://dashboardclass.blogspot.com Lan

    Well, given that the price of the Wii just shot up in the UK, it seems not everyone agrees with what Kotick was saying. Consoles definitely will sell more if the price drops from what I’ve seen though. I actually only bought my 360 because it went down $60 on boxing day.