The next generation of game consoles is going to have a high cost of entry. I’m stating a fact here. Let’s take a look at the xbox 360. First and foremost, you can’t just buy the console itself. You have to buy a bundle, which consists of the hard drive, an extra wireless controller, battery packs for the controllers, chargers for the battery packs for the wireless controllers, four games that are not chosen by you, a service plan, and of course, the console itself. GameStop has taken this to an extreme, offering the entire starting library of the 360 in their Omega Bundle. I could buy a lot of things with $1999.69.
This is going to sound out of character for me, but a gaming console is not one of them.
High prices won’t stop the early adopters. I used to think I was an early adopter. Looking at the six hundred dollar “core bundle,” which doesn’t even have a hard drive—I’m reevaluating my core’s hardness. (Probably softened a good bit after the mortgage.) I wonder how many other early adopters are going to change their ways? I can’t be alone. They are alienating a small portion of their audience, the part that still maintains some measure of common sense.
On the other hand, looking at the price of the 360 with the hard drive, the price of the PSP almost looks reasonable. All a matter of perspective.
Not a MicroSoft fan? The PlayStation 3 isn’t any better. Ken Kutaragi has already stated that he wants you to work more hours at your job in order to afford one.
Games for both systems will probably start at sixty dollars apiece, ten dollars more than the current generation.
Not to mention that native resolution for these games is going to be High Definition. Don’t have an HDTV? You might want to start thinking about it. Oh, and they are in 5.1 Surround, of course. I don’t see how that’s going to improve my Tetris experience. At all.