IGN reports on comments made by Peter Vesterbacka of Angry Birds fame on a panel at South By Southwest:
“console games are dying along with the concept of paying $50+ for a game.”
I think both concepts are false, though not completely made without grounds. Understanding that Angry Birds has sold over 100 million copies, I can understand why this comment was made, but 30 years of modern console development isn’t going to just go away ’cause some birds started knocking down walls one dollar at a time. In fact, sales of console based games are up 3% since last year.
Looking back at the history of game sales and evolution, I think a case can be made that cheap games will get cheaper, and more costly productions will push prices upwards beyond $50. As technology makes game production cheaper and more affordable for indie developers, we will see a spike on the low end – much like what we’ve seen over the last two years with the iPhone market, and the mass-market titles for the Wii. However, as long as high budget titles are out there, [ see GTA IV’s 100M price tag], and new hardware innovations are sought after by the public, I think we will continue to see the $50+ game land on shelves, and make its way home to a console.
Guess we aren’t the only ones talking about this comment.
http://kotaku.com/#!5782135/why-does-the-ipad-need-to-kill-consoles