A new survey from Cowan & Company indicates that despite the launch of the new motion tracking systems, Kinect and PlayStation Move, the best move to increase sales for the Xbox 360 and for the PlayStation 3 would be for the game manufacturers to cut the retail price of the devices.
The report says, “We view continued stubbornly high hardware price points as one of the key factors dragging down software sales.”
It adds, “We believe that the hardware manufacturers have left unit sales on the table by not reducing price points from $199 to $179 and $299 to $249 for the applicable consoles, and that doing so would have driven a more significant boost to hardware sales than the release (for Microsoft and Sony) of new motion-sensing peripherals.”
Cowan & Company says that although Kinect and Move are interesting for those who already own consoles, suggesting that they might pick them up in the near future, they remain unattractive for those who come from outside the gaming world, with demand still limited despite heavy promotion, especially from Microsoft.
Both Microsoft and Sony cut the retail price for their home consoles during the last year and launched new version of their devices, which both look better than their predecessors and eliminate some possible issues.
The PlayStation 3 Slim and the new form Xbox 360 both boosted sales when they were originally introduced but it's not clear whether the effects will be long term.
A new survey coming from Nielsen says that customers that are over 13 are more interested in picking up PCs and television sets in the coming months than on getting gaming consoles or add ons for them.
For those with ages between 6 and 12 Apple made devices are more attractive than the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3 and their motion tracking systems.
