Electronic Arts seems to have a habit of criticizing console prices, and has once again voiced concern that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are a bit too costly. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, chief financial officer Eric Brown said that prices were not in line with the last generation.
"I think pricing has not come down as much as we would have expected at this point in the cycle compared to the last," he explained. "We do have a long way to go with respect to pricing. Last cycle, approximately 48 percent of PlayStation 2 units were sold at a price point of $149 or less. Clearly at $299 we're nowhere near that price point."
Of course, this generation is quite different from the last, and that's something Brown also discussed: "It's a possibility that we don't see a sharp and distinct console transition like we've seen in the past. Today, we have two of the three consoles operating at full, high-definition and are running games at 60 frames a second. If you have a multi-billion capital investment to develop the next generation hardware, the question I would ask is, 'If you were to produce that, what would you display it on?' There's really nothing in terms of broadly available consumer viewing technology other than 1080p televisions.
"You could upgrade in theory, but you wouldn't get the obvious graphic benefit that we saw that drove the transitions in the prior cycle."
Do you think prices are fine at the moment, or should another round of cuts be made?
EA: Console Price Cuts Have A Long Way To Go [IGN]
Contest:
11:30 AM on 02.24.2010
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And please God, don't try and make Microsoft cut production costs. We all know what that leads to.
And just ignore the Wii.
Sony's price point is ok, but I'd kill to see a $250 PS3 Slim. That would be a downright steal. Then again, the system is selling well at $300, so I guess they can't complain.
Correct me if i'm wrong.
Game.co.uk price of Xbox 360 Arcade = £129.99
Modern Warfare 2 RRP = £54.99
Yes yes i picked the highest RRP game on the market, but mark my words thats the way Bobby Kotick and his merry band of wallet rapists are going with their pricing structure nowadays.
These companies only source of income is not in the sales of their consoles.. in fact, for the longest time Sony lost money on selling you a playstation 3. Income also comes in from distribution of games on their platforms,(in Sony's case) charging the publishers the right to put their games on PSN, Microsoft obviously makes money on Xbox Live, and that's really only scratching the surface. Apparently they're getting more money out of you then you thought, which I assume is exactly what they would want you to think.
Anyway, console prices aren't overly terrible to a "gamer", but I can see it all the time in people that are more "casual" still being scared off by a $300 console.
I paid $360 for a FUCKING graphics card 2 years ago, boo hoo soo much money. Dropping the price crates more of an impulse purchase or nets a sale from the people on the fence but the prices where they are now are quite reasonable when you compare them to other electronics.
and 360 will def have a price cut. $250 natal bundle will be sweet.
My ps3 that is.
But games are too expensive. Way too expensive.
WTF? Wii and X360 are already 200 bucks, a PS3 is 50$ below half the price at launch, are your sales failing that bad? maybe if YOU dropped your own prices you'd do better, sincerely
A Gamer with a working brain.
You need more consoles. You're missing out!
I'd get a 360 for sure if I could get a non-crappy SKU (i.e. an Elite) at $150-$200. (Hey, I refused to purchase a PS2 until I could get it for $150, that's just my limit...)
I wouldn't mind paying more for a PS3, mostly because it's also a Blu-Ray player, but $250 is probably the absolute ceiling for me, $200 would be a sweet spot.
You gotta take into account that the HD consoles are constantly touting their FPS games, all of which control, play, and run better on my PC. (Why would I want to resort to dual-analogue for my FPS?!) I'm looking for more of the games that can only really be enjoyed on their respective consoles, like Uncharted or The Last Guardian.
Activision, and now EA. Maybe this is projectionism on their part, but perhaps they need to release more compelling software on the hardware to make it sell. Maybe instead of whining to Sony and Microsoft about lowering the price, they instead make some games that will drive up the demand for the hardware.
Let's look at the Wii. Right now, the demand of the Wii has seen a resurrgence as of late. And it will continue to go up for the next few months, at least. It wasn't because of the price cut as much as it was the release of the proper software for the console. That being NSMB Wii. The game has driven sales for the Wii up in Japan (where the console market is stagnant). But boohoo to EA and Craptivision. They can't strongarm Nintendo because they make their own games in-house. Sony and Microsoft have to contract out third parties to do that. They can't hold their software hostage because Nintendo doesn't need them, and they have no shortage of smaller third parties making games for their consoles.
The next few years are gonna be interesting indeed to see unfold.
"Both have good software lineups this year, you could argue that Sony's might be a little better."
What? Mass Effect 2, Crackdown 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, Halo Reach and Alan Wake aren't doing it for ya? Don't mean to start a flame war, but Microsoft has one hell of a lineup this year.
Anyways Im spending about $1400 on PC parts when there are only 2 PC games I want for this entire year. I'm satisfied with current console prices.
I want you to stop selling shitty games for $60.
Stop overcharging for short games and maybe then I'll start buying your games brand new. Then game producers will get my money rather than EB. I'd rather wait for a used copy to price drop below $30-25, which reflects to true value of a game I can beat in one or two sittings.
Why would whether or not the big 3 roll out new consoles hinge on a decision to increase resolution? It's like this guy knows nothing about video games so he just assumes its related to dvds and blu rays.
Glad I waited till now the used game market is going the way of the frugal game buyer.