Clubberjack's Unfocused Ramblings

Xbox 360 and Next-Gen Pricing

GameDaily has a nice comprehensive overview of the pricing for the upcoming Xbox 360. The editor's opinion nicely expresses my feeling on the pricing issue:

While early adopters, including this editor [And me. --CJ], may plunk down the cash for a premium edition 360, it's becoming increasingly clear that things are getting out of hand. $400 for a console? $60 for a game? When will it stop? If the industry is to reach a billion consumers as Microsoft suggests, then prices on hardware and software need to start coming down, not going up.

If the industry continues in the direction of ultra-sophisticated, high-tech and mega expensive hardware along with software that costs upwards of $30 million to develop and market, we could soon be facing a crisis. A radical change to the fundamental economy of this industry and the way games are created and sold will become a necessity, if that isn't the case already.

With the PS3 also slated to be expensive, perhaps Nintendo's real "revolution" will be an inexpensive console. Wouldn't that be mind-blowing... especially if they are true to their word about supporting indie developers.

UPDATE: Here's an interesting breakdown of why these prices aren't so bad.

posted by Clubberjack @ 4:35 PM