Blizzard: Console Prices Should Drop, Motion Control Is Good

[Greg Tito]

Blizzard: Console Prices Should Drop, Motion Control Is Good

Michael Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard, said in the Activision earnings call yesterday that he sees console prices dropping and new user interfaces as catalysts for growth.

In the same conference call in which Mike Morhaime, the head honcho at Blizzard, mentioned that WoW subscriptions have plateaued [http://ims.warcry.com/module/96/ims_news/view?id=98245], he pointed out that the high prices of consoles might be inhibiting growth. He anticipates that as the current generation gets older, the price point should drop to ensure that customers still line up to purchase the expensive machines in this economic climate. Morhaime also said that he thinks the addition of Microsoft's Natal and Sony's Motion Control system could be great catalysts for growth in the industry.

"If you look at consoles, I think you are going to need to see hardware price declines given the economic uncertainties that we have," he told a panel of investors and analysts.

"I think you are going to need to see product innovations," he said. "And as you look at some of the new user interfaces that are coming out, I think those are certainly going to deliver some interesting product innovation."

Beyond that, Morhaime stated that Activision-Blizzard has some interesting products and games coming down the pipe which will drive their growth.

There is the natural growth that will come from expanding demographics, whether it's through [a] new user interface or the increased addition of social capabilities and gaming. I think if you look at all the categories that we operate in today, in the aggregate, you're likely over the next few years to see some fairly significant growth.

Blizzard's focus on the social aspect of gaming on their recently previewed new Battle.net seems to be in line with what Morhaime thinks will drive new users to the their games.

On the other hand, this sounds like a lot of business-speak to appease the stockholders and corporate overlords. With the revelation that WoW has ceased growing though, where Blizzard takes StarCraft 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Starcraft-II-Wings-Liberty-Pc/dp/B000ZKA0J6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1278964580&sr=1-1] and its other products becomes increasingly more important.

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[Deofuta]

Hmm, new GUI = lower prices?

I like it!

Also, cool reference is cool.

 

[Premonition]

Of course prices should drop. But that doesn't mean that they can drop. Unfortunately. As stated here before, I think, the Trey is almost catching up to the Price-Cost and I don't know what it's for the other consoles. Though I do agree that the interfaces and whatnots need to be spruced up.

Also, motion control is a gimmick and should stay a gimmick. IMO anyways.

 

[Starke]

Is this what has to happen for Ghost to see the light of day?

 

[Wolfram23]

Games need to drop in price, I don't think consoles need to nor can they. We already know PS3 is sold below cost. The games, however, should be much cheaper. Ideally, no hard disk = big savings. Hence why next gen consoles better have terabyte HDs and everything is available as DLC. Also, for games like Rock Band, why not just use DLC for all the new versions? It's the same format and everything, they just changed the songs and graphical presentation. Big wastes but hey that's the American way!

 

[Proteus214]

Motion control UIs will only happen once true standards are actually developed and refined in the same way that touch screen controls have in the past two decades. Which means that they should absolutely not depend on game developers to do this. Get the guys down at Apple on this ASAP!

 

[Wolfram23]

Of course they need to drop in price. Same with the games. I am unwilling to throw away $500 on a 360 that will probably RR on me or a PS3 that seems to have no decent exclusives. Not to mention the games nowadays seem to be around $100-120.

As for motion control, personally I think the natal or the arc is a total waste of time. But I will keep a open mind, however they have to show us something.
It is all very well and good announcing it at E3 and making a few claims but what about now? What else have they shown us? Do not just say "HERE IS THE FUTURE" then not say another damn word about it.

I'd love to hear your explanation about ps3 exclusives. And what games are $100? DJ Hero with the special controller? Yea... that's it. Games are $60-70 new.

Plus, if you want to game it's either a $300 console or a $1500 PC...

 

[Woodsey]

I was hoping that said motion control is gash, but unfortunately not.

 

[Irridium]

Yes console prices should drop, but they won't, since they dropped about, what, 3-4 months ago?

Of course they need to drop in price. Same with the games. I am unwilling to throw away $500 on a 360 that will probably RR on me or a PS3 that seems to have no decent exclusives. Not to mention the games nowadays seem to be around $100-120.

As for motion control, personally I think the natal or the arc is a total waste of time. But I will keep a open mind, however they have to show us something.
It is all very well and good announcing it at E3 and making a few claims but what about now? What else have they shown us? Do not just say "HERE IS THE FUTURE" then not say another damn word about it.

Dude, your using arguments that are like, 2 years old. Consoles are $300, games are $60 with the exception of special editions and music game bundles, and the PS3 has gotten a crapload of great exclusives in the past years.

 

[Wolfram23]

Gee maybe if you want to talk about rupees you should say so, otherwise it's assumed to be the american dollar (READ: economic benchmark)

Secondly, GoW 3 is by far the least exciting exclusive to me. Now, we can consider console exclusives well let's see... Uncharted 2, Demon's Souls, Grand Turismo, Ratchet and Clank, Little Big Planet, Heavy Rain, Infamous etc etc etc. You're either retarded/ignorant, a fanboy(girl), or just the most picky gamer I've ever heard of, and no matter the choice, it's your loss.

And about the PC being a bit cheaper than I said... what's your point? That's still more than double what I paid for my PS3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CategorylayStation_3-only_games

 

[MR T3D]

do i sense SC2 spinoff on 360 w/ NATAL support..?

 

[Jared]

I wish console prices would drop a little more...although, with the recession starting to end I see the oppositte possibly happening...

 

[DrDeath3191]

Of course console prices should drop. As the technology becomes cheaper to produce, you lower your prices to benefit the future consumer.

And on the topic of motion controls, I think they are good, but still need to be developed. However, I think Natal and the Arc are not going to do much better than the Wii already has. The latency issues and lack of a controller makes the Natal a tough sell (although the voice recognition and other functions sound promising), plus we have no idea what the cost of the unit will be. The Arc is a copy-paste of the Wii Remote which touts the useless ability to read its position in 3D space, while we gaze into a 2D screen. I could be wrong, but I don't think that these are going to rock the world.

 

[Irridium]

Dude, your using arguments that are like, 2 years old. Consoles are $300, games are $60 with the exception of special editions and music game bundles, and the PS3 has gotten a crapload of great exclusives in the past years.

Wow. It seems that no one here understands that the world is not just america. Find a atlas. It turns out there are lots of other countries out there. And in these other countries they use different money.
Scary I know. But its true.
And no, they haven't. Too many of their apparently great exclusives get absolutely trashed once they get released (see above post) and the rest are all generic FPS that bring nothing new to the table.

Well, since you used the dollar signs in your post I assumed you were in the U.S. If you don't live in the U.S. perhaps you should use your countries currency to avoid confusion.

And I don't quite remember Infamous, Uncharted 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2, Ratchet and Clank, Little Big Planet, or Resistance getting trashed. Not to mention all the unique and fun downloadable games.

In fact, the most recent exclusive that got above average reviews was MAG.

And the only games on that list that could be considered generic are Resistance and Killzone, but then again every console has generic shooters. the 360 has Halo 3 and Gears of War, and the PC has Crysis.

I understand that not everyone likes those games, and everyones tastes are different, but the PS3 at least has varied exclusives and Sony at least has the balls to publish new, interesting, and decent games rather than force-feeding us constant sequels. They do feed us sequels, no question, but at least its less than other companies.

 

[Low Key]

When Blizzard starts producing a competing console, then I'll care what they have to say about prices. Not that they shouldn't drop, but of course game developers want consoles to be more affordable. That way, more people will buy their games.

Spoiler

Well, since you used the dollar signs in your post I assumed you were in the U.S. If you don't live in the U.S. perhaps you should use your countries currency to avoid confusion.

And I don't quite remember Infamous, Uncharted 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2, Ratchet and Clank, Little Big Planet, or Resistance getting trashed. Not to mention all the unique and fun downloadable games.

In fact, the most recent exclusive that got above average reviews was MAG.

And the only games on that list that could be considered generic are Resistance and Killzone, but then again every console has generic shooters. the 360 has Halo 3 and Gears of War, and the PC has Crysis.

I understand that not everyone likes those games, and everyones tastes are different, but the PS3 at least has varied exclusives and Sony at least has the balls to publish new, interesting, and decent games rather than force-feeding us constant sequels. They do feed us sequels, no question, but at least its less than other companies.

Dude, the Australian dollar also uses the $ symbol.

 

[SonofSeth]

Khitten, you are obviously getting your information from biased sources, nothing we can do about that, you just have to try a little harder, and you know, start thinking for yourself. Scary, I know.

 

[Carnagath]

It's not so much the price that's the problem, it's the fact that the 360 is a piece of shit that you have to be prepared to rebuy 3 times, because that's what all your fucking friends have and you're just kinda forced to. Only the Wii is WAAAAAAAY too overpriced for what it offers, its price needs to be cut in, like, half. As for the PS3, no complaints, high quality, reliable, well priced, good games coming out, perfect, yet still people don't buy it because the userbase has already been established. Tough shit.

 

[squid5580]

No consoles have dropped thier prices. Now how about you drop the prices of your games? Oh yeah that's right pretty easy to call for a price drop that effects someone else's profits huh?

 

[Carnagath]

Why, hello there, fanboy!

They have damn near no good exclusives. What more is there to explain? God of War 3 is about the only drawing point they have left. White Knight Chronicles is getting slammed by any critic worth his salt and Heavy Rain is just a interactive movie, not a decent game. Do not even get me started on how the PS3 performs with multiplatform games.

White Knight Chronicles? Yeah. Such a highly anticipated game, it really broke people's hearts that it's not great, because pretty much every PS3 owner had a poster of that game on their wall. Awwwwwkay.

Heavy Rain is just an interactive movie and not a decent game. And you know this how? Did you play it? Of course not. You just read reviews of it. OH WAIT, NO YOU DIDN'T, because it's got a 90% average rating. Oh wow, everyone in the industry must have pretty low standards then!

Multiplatform performance? Yes, do get started on how the PS3 performs there. I bought a 360 on release day and I bought a PS3 18 months ago. Since then, I have not bought a single game for the 360, and I did buy pretty much every major title out there. I must be stupid and getting the "broken" versions then! Seriously, tell me a game from the past 2 years that was better on the 360. There might be one that I am missing, but I really can't think of any. Like, I don't know, Dragon Age as a latest example. What was I thinking to not get the 360 version? Oh wait...

Infamous I never played but from what I hear its just Prototype with a weak morality system, Uncharted is generally described as a weak Gears of War clone however I have not played it myself so can not truly judge. MG4 57 hours of cutscene to 3 of playing not to mention some of the worst voice acting I have ever heard. KZ2 and Resistence were very run of the mill shooters.

So you basically played none of the above games and watched a youtube clip from MGS4. That's great. Yeah, Infamous is like Prototype, only better. Uncharted is indeed a GoW clone, as much as Tomb Raider is a Serious Sam clone, which is to say NOT SO MUCH! The rest of the games you don't like. You haven't played them, but you don't like them. Because you don't like anything that's not on the 360. You must be under the impression that your fanboy opinion matters. It doesn't. What matters is that those games exist, are highly critically acclaimed and millions of people love them. If you want your opinion to be valid, post "I DON'T LIKE PS3 GAMES" or "MY MUM GOT ME THE WRONG CONSOLE", not "PS3 HAS NO GAMES".

And, yeah, 2010 looks good. GoW3, GT5, FFXIII - Non crap edition...Also a little game called The Last Guardian? Look it up.

Now let's talk about the 360's highly rated exclusives. Already released: Halo 3. GoW is not an exclusive. And, uhm... Uh... Anticipated: Uh...

Yeah, I'm bored, so... successful troll was successful.

 

[Irridium]

Dude, the Australian dollar also uses the $ symbol.

*snip*

My countries currency is the dollar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar#Countries_which_use_the_dollar

Infamous I never played but from what I hear its just Prototype with a weak morality system, Uncharted is generally described as a weak Gears of War clone however I have not played it myself so can not truly judge. MG4 57 hours of cutscene to 3 of playing not to mention some of the worst voice acting I have ever heard. KZ2 and Resistence were very run of the mill shooters. Ratchet and Clank I got sick of on the ps2, another generic rehash from a overdone franchise. LBP, okay I will give you that one. LBP is pretty damn cool. And most of the "unique and fun" downloadable games are rehashes of old ones or shovelware.
Yes, some of these may be finnicky niggle points but still the ps3 has yet to show me anything that is unique and not just another rehash or boring game with ever so slightly upgraded graphics. The 360 has a couple (I will admit, not very many) decent exclusives but does have the better selection of console exclusives. And its multiplatform is usually far, far, far superior.

Oh, well, I did not know that other countries used the dollar as their currency. Now I do.

And about a few of the games, Infamous does have a weak morality system, mainly because its so black and white. But then again the only games who's morality system offered a bit more "grey" choices was Dragon Age and sometimes in Mass Effect 2. So you can't really hate the game because of that. I also found it to be a bit better than Prototype, but then again that could just be a personal reason, since I liked the story in Infamous a lot more than Prototype's.

Uncharted is nothing like Gears of War, the only way they are similar is through combat, where you duck in cover and shoot, everything else is way different from Gears.

True, MGS4 does have some of the worst voice acting I have heard, and I have wanted to break the disk because of all the damn cutscenes, but you can skip them, and the few parts that are gameplay are fantastic.

Killzone 2 and Resistance are run of the mill, and are basically the same story as Halo and Gears where its "Aliens push humans to the brink of extinction, its up to you to save them." Hell the only game that even tries to mix up that formula is Killzone 2, where your the invading aliens. Still pretty bland though, I admit. Granted Resistance 1 had some of the most fun weapons I have ever used in a shooter.

Ratchet and Clank I can understand why people wouldn't like the games. I like them though, and find them fun.

And seemingly the only 360 exclusive thats talked about a lot is Halo, so I most likely missed some. Fable 2 was a good game, yet people seem to hate it with a passion for some reason... Other exclusives I'm not really sure on, except older ones, but people don't seem to play them anymore.

And multiplatform games are nearly identical on both consoles. Bayonetta was the only recent game that was significantly better on the 360, but the vast majority of games these days are basically the same on both systems. There are differences but they are so miniscule they're not worth pointing out.