14 DAY TRIAL // How much is a gamer prepared to spend in order to control their console using something other than a standard controller? This is one of the questions a lot of people are pondering, with 2010 set to be the year when the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 join the Nintendo Wii as motion control enabled.
Ubisoft has already stated that it plans to create videogames for both the Sony wand, which has been recently delayed, and for Project Natal from Microsoft, which is set to come in time for the holidays.
Yves Guillemot seems to also have delivered a comment aimed directly at the price of the peripherals, saying that “We have lots of good quality products that are coming for the launch of those platforms. It represents a reasonable investment, the equivalent of one full-priced game.” So, it might just be that both motion tracking systems will retail for somewhere close to 60 dollars when they come out.
It's unlikely that the CEO of Ubisoft actually knows the price of the two systems but the people who are developing titles for them probably have at least some information on the price range. The Redmond-based company has already announced that it has dropped a special chip from Project Natal, whose functions will now be handled via software, which analysts believe has pushed the production cost well under 100 dollars.
The initial price of the wand and of Natal is very important to those who plan on putting out videogames that use them. Considering the limited disposable income gamers have at the moment, too high a price tag on the motion tracking peripherals will lead to a limited number of people actually adopting them, meaning that publishers will have a smaller possible audience for their as of yet unannounced titles that make use of motion control.