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Release date: 06/25/13

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DAILY MANIFESTO

Choose: Motion Controls or Console Price Drops?

Posted on Tuesday, November 23 @ 18:09:26 Eastern by Daniel Bischoff

This is new ground we've broken here. Most console manufacturers are planning on selling you the same hardware for 10 years. If the PS2 can do it, surely the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii (*ppffffftttttt*) will last a decade as well... right?

One way Microsoft and Sony are hoping to keep you on the same graphics chips, disc drives, and processors for that period of time is through the introduction of new motion controllers. $500 Million dollars in marketing budget for the Kinect is nothing to shake a stick at and a redesigned dashboard furthers the illusion that you're playing on new hardware.

One analyst believes that this is not the way to maintain console sales and that software sales will suffer the same way.

Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz says that "None of the hardware manufacturers have reduced their hardware prices since the last holiday. However, our survey results indicate that prospective hardware buyers have reduced the price that they are willing to pay for hardware.

"In our survey last year, average prices that our respondents were willing to pay matched fairly closely with prevailing hardware retail price points, but this year the gap is $30 or more for all of the three consoles."

Thirty bucks doesn't sound like a lot, but it sure does make that price tag look more welcoming to less dedicated buyers.

"We believe that the hardware manufacturers have left unit sales on the table by not reducing price points from $199 to $179 and $299 to $249 for the applicable consoles, and that doing so would have driven a more significant boost to hardware sales than the release (for Microsoft and Sony) of new motion-sensing peripherals.

"We view continued stubbornly high hardware price points as one of the key factors dragging down software sales."

Of course with less platform owners, there's less of a market for software developers to sell to. Seems pretty straight forward, but I doubt anyone with a thirst for Call of Duty doesn't already have a console and a copy of the game. What isn't accounted for in that sentiment are all the friends, room mates, and little brothers who haven't gone ahead and bought their own console to play the game on.

Here's hoping holiday sales of Kinect and Move are not all the manufacturers had hoped they would be so gift cards can be lumped together and used for new consoles.

Tags: kinect, move, Xbox 360, ps3

Comments

schimmel
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Nov 23rd, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Price drop, please!

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Bretimus_v2
Joined: Jan 2009

Posted: Nov 23rd, 2010 at 11:28 pm
I would love to see a hardware drop. To be honest, I think starting price is the determining factor for breaking into the non-gamer market. Motion control worked so well for the Wii because it was different, seemed very intuitive and most importantly it was the most affordable.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Nov 24th, 2010 at 1:29 am
@Bretimus_v2: I'm hoping for a PS3 price drop myself. The least they could do is include a game and a movie all year long!

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the_mighty_toast
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Nov 24th, 2010 at 3:59 am
Price drops mean nothing to me...I already have a 360 and ps3. I had a wii, until I beat the only 2 games I found interesting and sold it back...for profit.

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usaglory
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Nov 24th, 2010 at 5:21 am
Although a hardware price drop would be awesome, the thing I really wish would happen would be for games to go back to their $49.99 price point and $39.99 for select titles. $59.99 is just too much to be spending on a constant basis. If games would go down in price people would be more inclined to buy games they wouldn't buy at $60. That could even lead to new franchises being created and companies could still compensate, less profit per game but more copies sold.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Nov 24th, 2010 at 11:11 am
@the_mighty_toast: Get off your high horse richie....

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