Tue, Feb 09, 2010 | 11:44 GMT
Riccitello: 2009 console price-cuts came “too late”
EA CEO John Riccitiello said last night the first-party hardware price-cuts made in the second half of last year came “too late”.
Speaking in the company’s Q3 FY10 financial call, the exec said price-cuts for PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii were too slow in bringing down the price.
“I think a… factor in 2009 was sort of a lack of aggressive pricing on first-party if you will, a little bit too late with their price-cuts,” he said, answering a question on overall industry weakness and decreased tie-ratios.
He added, however, state that console use was on the up, despite the emergence of social platforms.
“First up we do have data and research on the amount of time consumers are spending with games, and increasingly and importantly they’re spending more time with their consoles than they ever have before – so I don’t think it’s a consumer behaviour issue if it’s anything at all,” he said.
At gamescom last August, after much pressure, Sony cut the price of PS3 down to £249/$299/€299. It was a move Riccitiello welcomed.
It was then followed up by a Wii price-cut for Japan, US and Europe – but not the UK – at Toyko Game Show, before Microsoft announced a European price-cut for Xbox 360.
Find everything from EA’s Q3 FY10 financials here.
5 comments
#1
NGCes26294BIV
09/02/10, 11:54 am
Erm… the basic 360 SKU can be bought brand new at £129. That’s not far off a DSi XL. How ‘aggressive’ is he suggesting they need to be?
#2
Psychotext
09/02/10, 11:59 am
I’d wager he’s talking about the Wii and PS3 mostly… though I still don’t understand why MS dumped the Pro model 360.
#3
Blerk
09/02/10, 12:09 pm
No, that was definitely a weird thing to do. It’d have made more sense to ditch the Arcade and just turn the 60gb Pro into the new entry-level model.
#4
Gheritt White
09/02/10, 12:21 pm
£120 is still the threshold for an impulse purchase, apparently.
#5
OlderGamer
09/02/10, 3:03 pm
I feel in most cases what we are getting are less price cuts and more “added value”. And I think this confuses the market and puts off would be consumers.
If a family would like to buy a game system, but can’t spring for the 300usd price tag, it doesn’t matter if you keep offering more and more goodies in that said 300usd box. Too many skus, priced too high.
199usd for the xbox and PS3. Period. Each should include a 120GHD and HD cables. The Wii should be priced at 149usd, maybe 129usd.
I paid over 500usd for my PS3, and have a 60GHD. And I think that many nonowners hear stuff like that, see multiple skus, and shy away.
I see all hardware as having flawed pricing strategies from th eget go. But, what does it matter? Not like they aren’t still selling.