Survey says new consumers would buy consoles if the prices were reduced

Cowan & Company has conducted a survey which suggests core videogames are still the best market investment and more new consumers could be tempted to purchase consoles if the prices were reduced.

According to the survey, as reported by GI.biz, less than five percent of consumers bought fewer games due to time spent playing social or free-to-play games online, despite the rise in usage in the sector. What this suggests, is core games are still a wise investment from both stock market players and publishers.

The report also concluded interest in motion controllers from non-owners of current consoles was "tepid" and in order to gain new customers, a price reduction of $30 per hardware offering was enough to grab US consumer attention.

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

The report also found that 76 percent of online console gamers had purchased DLC within the past year. with 46 percent of consumers spending over $20 on digital offerings.