With blockbuster releases like Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2 already dominating video game sales charts, the industry is already asking itself what will be the biggest title of the year. Because of that success, many people have been asking what the next “big step” for the industry will be.
Most experts, including this writer, agree that the world of motion controls is either going seriously stimulate the growth of the industry or hurt it over the coming year.
Michael Pachter, the top video game industry analyst from Wedbush Securities, has weighed in on both of these topics in his most recent episode of Pach-Attack!, courtesy of our friends over at Game Trailers.
In this episode, Pachter first addresses the top selling game of the upcoming year and has put in his vote for Halo: Reach. After the game’s original trailer from the Spike VGA’s and then the X10 ViDoc, we are inclined to agree with him.
Not to say it won’t have any competition with upcoming releases like the next Call of Duty title, but with this year’s COD not coming from Infinity Ward it is likely to not pull the numbers that Modern Warfare 2 did. Even titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 don’t have the game industry equity to match what the next Halo title can bring to the table.
Even more interesting though was Pachter’s prediction on the price of Natal. Everyone in the industry has speculated that the XBox 360 peripheral could cost anywhere from $99.99 to the price of a whole new console. Pachter surprisingly predicts an astonishingly low $50 price point, indicating that he believes Microsoft will take the route of charging only production cost, or even less, on this item and make up for it with software sales.
This one seems a little far reaching as Pachter even points out that Microsoft is not known for low prices on their gaming peripherals. The XBox hard drive is notoriously overpriced compared to external drives that could be used on computers… or the PlayStation 3. Even their WiFi adapter, which is a built in PlayStation 3 feature, costs close to $100.
While we HOPE that Microsoft does the nice thing and gives us a freebie for once, we don’t see that happening and personally predict the price of Natal coming in between the $125 to $150 mark. Take a peek below at the entire episode and make sure to weigh in about what you think the top game will be or what Microsoft will charge us for Natal.
