Max I think you nailed Pachter in your initial comment, especially in the idea that he appeals to those that don't know jack shit about our market.
As long as there are stupid, empty suits(not Pachter but the other people) who try to jam our market into the same market as movies or other products then these predictions will always be full of fail or mild win.
As for his slide, isn't a consolidation almost like a company closed? It sure the
seems that way for Enix. Since when do we see any of Enix's old shit or anything new from them? It's just Dragon Quest and Star Ocean.
that...since when was Square allowed to be the butch in the relationship?! Last I remember it was ENIX that bailed them out.
Seriously, with a merger sometimes a company might as well have gone out of business, one only knows the only beneficiaries usually are shareholders. Trust me, employees and the consumers usually don't benefit tremendously or at all from a merger.
For the price of new games being $70, that shit won't fly. If they start charging $70 it will be the straw that broke the camels back for game pricing. You can argue about the previous generation and pricing but most cartridge games didn't even cost that much and those that did were few. Consider how many games we have on the shelves now on average. For that $70 game in the past you now have 2 or 3 in its place, at the very least. Consider how few Japanese games we saw get release here and I'm referring to good ones held back.
The best way to handle gaming is to get serious about selling them. I think games should release at $40 honestly. Before someone calls me crazy you handle it like this. Release your game on sale at $40 for the debut week and print massive copies, like movie level and place them on end cabs with huge posters and such. Make sure Target and others really put up the sale tags too. After this promo week the games go up to $50.
I know you people will talk about how expensive these games are to make. Well doesn't the average movie cost a comparative amount? Why not print as many copies of those games as a movie and really push sales? If games don't cost quite as much, print a slightly smaller amount but still really push them. You see, herein lies our problem with game prices.