...
As for the pricing on the next-gen systems, Guillemot again expressed his approval. Like Activision's Eric Hirshberg, Guillemot noted that the $499 Xbox One asks a premium over the $399 PlayStation 4. But where Hirshberg thought Microsoft still needs to work to justify that discrepancy, Guillemot said the inclusion of the new Kinect camera in Microsoft's offering looks to do just that.
"For the hardware they're putting on the market, the price is right," Guillemot said. "They are offering machines that will be exceptional, and for those prices, they're good deals."
That was a better appraisal than Guillemot gave the Wii U prior to its launch. Last November, Guillemot said he always prefers lower pricing, so he wasn't happy when Nintendo announced plans to sell the Wii U in $299 and $349 bundles. Still, Ubisoft has supported the Wii U, and even with its slow start, Guillemot said he hasn't given up on it just yet.
"We like the machine itself, with its possibility to have different types of gameplay on the TV screen and on the tablet," Guillemot said. "It's something that's really new for the industry, and we'll continue to see more of that on the PS4 and Xbox One."
Now the big question is what Nintendo will do to push sales of the system. Ubisoft has already said it would welcome a Wii U price cut, but Nintendo president Satoru Iwata dismissed the idea in an interview earlier this month.
"We will continue to support the Wii U this Christmas, and we're expecting it to take off in terms of sales," Guillemot said. "And we'll review what happened again at the beginning of next year."
...
