Activision: Sony's Move and Microsoft's Kinect Are Too Expensive

While listening to the executives at the major video game companies is fun (and revealing), it's also insightful to look at the world's major video game publishers, too. They're just as intrinsically wound to the market as the manufacturers of those consoles, too, considering that without the games, there wouldn't be much need for the consoles. And while E3 is over, we're still wading in some of the news from that major conference. Or, more accurately, some of the news due to its announcements.

For Activision, they didn't show any of their own titles that may have been tied to Sony's Move, or Microsoft's Kinect. For some fans out there, waiting to get their hands on a Call of Duty Move-based title, or even for Kinect, would be a dream come true. Unfortunately, Activision seems to think that the motion-based peripherals out there, from Sony and Microsoft, are just too expensive. This is coming from Activision's COO, Thomas Tippl. He went on to tell Gamasutra that you have to be concerned with how price drives a lot of the outcome of your install base. Generally, a cheaper price means more of an install base; and, more of an install base means more of a return on your investment.

And while there's some companies out there in the tech world that don't care about price (as their products are snatched up either way), Nintendo showed that if you make a cheaper console, but still have enough features to make it worth the money in general, then people will come. Nintendo's Wii made motion-based gaming mainstream, and while Microsoft and Sony are trying to jump on the bandwagon now, if more people are thinking like Activision's Tippl, then their price points may just be too expensive to warrant a purchase for most.

As of right now, Sony's Move is the only motion-based controller/peripheral that's actually been officially priced. At $49.99, it's not entirely all that expensive, at least not in our eyes. There is a bundle, which includes a console, and everything you need for Move to function for $399, but that includes a console, so again, not too bad on the wallet. As for Microsoft's Kinect, that's still not official. Priced at $149.99 thanks to places like GameStop (and now, even Microsoft's online store), we're still waiting for some official confirmation. What are your thoughts? Does Activision hit the nail on the head with this, or are they missing the mark entirely?

[via Gamasutra]