THQ: Cheaper games 'is the future'

THQ president Brian Farrell thinks the $59.99 asking price for games is "keeping people out," and plans to explore cheaper price points in a move that he says is "the way games are gonna go".

"What we're thinking about the business is we're turning it on its head a little bit," said Farrell at the BMO Capital Markets conference this week (via Gamasutra). "It's not, 'how high a price can we get', but 'how many users',"

"If you can capture everyone under that economic curve, that's where you can make the most money," he explained, adding that he believes the $59.99 price of games is "keeping people out".

"When we launched [MX vs. ATV] at $59.99, we'd do some units, and then when we brought the price down to the mass market-friendly price of $39.99, it would just pop,"

Thus Farrell hopes that launching at a lower price point from the start would garner a larger install base to which he can flog large amounts of DLC content.

"So the thinking this time is, let's initially launch at $39.99 -- it's a very robust game, very high quality, so this is not about trying to get a secondary title out.

"It's an AAA title, at that price point, but then with a series of DLC so people can extend their experience. We think this is the future of gaming. We think that's the way games are gonna go in the long term."

What do you think?

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