Activision: Kinect and Move Are Too Expensive

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While some gamers were wowed and impressed by Microsoft and Sony’s showing with the Kinect and Move – some people weren’t so impressed. Well, at least with the price. Activision is the world’s largest publisher at the moment, so them declining to support these two new motion control setups is a big deal.

Activison Chief Operating Officer Thomas Tippl told gaming business site Gamasutra that he was “absolutely” concerned with the high price that Kinect and move are being sold at.

Tippl said:

I think as a publisher, you have to be concerned about how the price drives a lot of the outcome of how big of an install base there’s going to be [for hardware]. The bigger the install base, the more likely that you can make sense out of your investment. So, the lower the price, the better. In this economic environment, it’s probably more important than ever

As a publisher, Activision has to green-light development for games that use the new scheme. If Activision spends some $80 million developing a game for Kinect or Move and nobody buys it – it hits them where it hurts.

Activison’s rivals have jumped on the Kinect and Move bandwagon. French competitor Ubisoft’s “Your Shape: Fitness Evovled” was a major title showed off by Microsoft, and Ubisoft’s “Michael Jackson: The Game” will show up on both Kinect and Move. Likewise, EA showed off Grand Slam Tennis, a game for both motion control platforms. Both Ubisoft and EA showed off other games for the new control schemes, as well.

Somewhat shockingly, Activision has announced no games for Move or Kinect yet. As Gamasutra points out – Activison isn’t shy about making comments about pricing. Last year, beloved Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said that the price of the PS3 was too high, and it was hurting sales of PS3 games.

Do you think Activision not supporting Kinect and Move is a big deal? Will the lack of Activision games affect your decision to buy Kinect or Move?