Activision’s Kotick Calls For Console Price Cuts

Activision CEO Robert Kotick has made a new call for console price cuts, insisting that $299 is not a mass-market price tag. He suggests a drop in hardware prices would improve software sales -- even though he's not expecting this to happen in the short term. "The price on platforms today has still not gotten down to mass-market price points and 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," he told Reuters in a new interview. Although Kotick was doubtful of any further large-scale consolidation in the games industry, he did echo recent comments by Activision Publishing president Mike Griffith that suggested Europe and Asia were key growth areas for the company. "We're just scratching the surface of opportunity as a publisher in Europe. There's a lot more that we can do," said Kotick. "In China and Korea, Blizzard has had great success, but Activision products have not really had any success there." Finally, Kotick mentioned unspecified plans to develop "stronger games" for the Wii. Activision Blizzard has released few Wii exclusives, and many of its multiplatform releases on the console have earned a poor critical response. "In the past we approached the Wii as an extension of what we were doing on PlayStation and the Xbox, and I think we can do a better job of creating original content for the Wii, and I think you'll see more of that this year," he said.