Activision CEO Bobby Kotick suggested in an earnings call that greater manufacturing efficiency will bring about a price drop in next gen consoles sooner than the current gen.
In a post earnings call yesterday, Activision Blizzard CEO, Bobby Kotick suggested that the PS4 and Xbox One could witness a price drop much sooner than the current gen consoles.
The reason for this, Kotick explained, is a result of greater manufacturing efficiency that eventually leads to higher economies of scale.
“They’ve made more investments in the back office than ever before,” Kotick said. “Lots of efficiencies in manufacturing that could drive hardware prices down sooner in the cycle.”
Kotick seemed really confident about the launch of next-gen consoles and added, ” There’s no indication from our perspective that you’re going to see anything other than a very successful 7-8 years.”
The Xbox One will be available for $500 when it launches on November 22, while the PS4 will be available for $40 at launch in the US. Comparing this with current gen, the Xbox 360 was launched in 2005 at $300/$400, while the PS3 debuted the market in 2006 at $500/$600.
It took around eight months for Sony to slash the price of PS3 way back in 2006 due to its high price point, Microsoft on the other hand took about 20 months to cut the price on the Xbox 360 back in 2007.
