Namco Bandai VP: “We Must Change The Price Of Video Games”

Namco Bandai’s vice president and head of sales and marketing Oliver Comte has stated that games are too expensive for the consumers, and that publishers have to find a secondary business model.”I am convinced that in the future we must change the price of video games – they’re too expensive for the audience,” Comte told MCV. “With the cost of development and the retail margins, £40 GBP is a fair price [to us], but for the consumer it is too much.”“A good price of a game should be around £20 GBP – but for this price we can’t make a ten to 15-hour adventure,” continued Comte. “So for £20 we should offer consumers four to five hours of gameplay, then after that we can make additional money with DLC.”These comments came as Comte noted that films and music have two ways to make money: music has discs and concerts, while films have cinema and disc. “Games just have one model, the sale of the product either as a box or a digital download. So we need to think about how we can develop a secondary business model,” he continued.Comte noted that first parties have to be spoken to, as well. “It is impossible for a publisher to make money on a DS game, for example, that goes on sale for £15 GBP. We have to sell the game to retail for lower than that, we have to pay all the marketing, production, and distribution costs.””I feel all the big video game companies need to join together in a worldwide summit to discuss the future of our industry,” noted Comte. “I think we have to pull our thoughts together.”Is the current pricing a crisis facing the industry, or do you reckon consumers will continue to pay whatever publishers ask for? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.