Retailers List DJ Hero at $120

GameStop and Amazon have listed Activision’s upcoming music game DJ Hero at $120 for a bundle that comes with the game’s turntable peripheral.

When Capcom’s Steel Battalion launched in 2002 with a $200 price tag because of its ridiculously intricate 40 button, two control stick peripheral, people laughed. Little did they know that before the end of this decade, peripheral-based gaming would see a massive rise in popularity thanks to the music game phenomenon.

I’m not saying that people nowadays would pay $200 for a game-peripheral bundle for some hardcore mech sim, but the standards have changed. Or at least publishers think they have: Activision appears to be pricing its upcoming DJ Hero at $120 on all platforms. That’s what GameStop and Amazon both are listing the game-turntable bundle as, and they’re both saying it’ll come out on October 27.

If the number 120 and the word Activision ring a bell in your mind, that’s because $120 is the price of Activision’s Tony Hawk: Ride bundle, which comes with a skateboard controller. The question when it comes to Ride is the same one gamers will have to ask for DJ Hero: Is this really worth $120?

Judging from the footage of the turntable controller in action from E3, it seems like a quality product, but $120 could be a high price of entry even for the most passionate DJ wannabes. For everyone else, especially the people who don’t know their R2D2 from their RJD2, it could be simply too much money for a new game about music they’re not entirely familiar with.

Activision’s other new Hero property, Band Hero has also been listed at GameStop at $200.

DJ Hero is, arguably, a risk for Activision, regardless of how much it costs. If it actually does cost $120, does that change anybody’s interest in the game? Does it dissuade those of you who were going to buy the game, or change the opinion of those of you who were considering it?