Activision has defended its decision to increase the price for Modern Warfare 2 in the U.K., saying the game offers value for money even at the higher price point.
Activision revealed in July that Modern Warfare 2 will launch at £54.99 (roughly $90) when it’s released in the U.K., £5 more than “regular” Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases. Consumers were less than thrilled with the news, of course, and industry analyst Michael Pachter predicted the hike was a “one-time test” to see how consumers would react.
But the company says it’s confident that the higher price won’t have a negative impact on sales and that the game will pack enough bang for the buck that players will come away satisfied. “The question is what represents value for money,” Activision U.K. Managing Director Andrew Brown said. “At the end of the day, there is a spectrum of what people can afford and what people are prepared to spend. These things are key. Is what I am buying supplying me sufficient value for money and can I afford it? If so then I will buy it.”
“This is an industry where things cost a lot to develop and it’s a risky business. We talk about building franchises; it is very expensive to do this from every respect. What we are finding is that for the right products, if you look at the time someone will spend playing something and compare it to something else, people are saying it’s worth it,” he continued. “There’s nothing in life that isn’t price elastic. Price at retail changes all the time depending on how successful a product is or isn’t. I think there is a lot of controversy over I don’t know what.”
I’m not sure I see what the controversy is about either. The idea of “standard” game prices strikes me as rather odd; it’s far more natural that different games with different production costs (and different degrees of avarice at the companies behind them) would result in different prices for each product. It’s an easy practice to decry when Activision is responsible but when all is said and done, the math is pretty simple: If it’s too expensive, people won’t buy it; if people buy it, it ain’t too expensive.
Source: MCV UK
Published: Oct 5, 2009 03:08 pm