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One of the founding members of the games industry has blasted Microsoft for its handling of the Xbox One reveal.
They totally screwed it up,” Atari founder Nolan Bushnell told VG247. When I heard some of the announcements and the analysis of it, I’m shaking my head and saying, ‘What in the hell were they thinking?’. Of course that wasn’t going to go down well.”
In April Bushnell predicted that Microsoft would win the next-gen war over Sony because of its software development tools, well-developed online infrastructure and significant cash reserves.
Bushnell also stuck up for pre-owned, claiming that it plays a significant role in the market.
I actually think that trade-ins are good and they bring in more money,” he added. I believe that in a lot of ways, a $50 game is discontinuity. There are more people who can’t afford a $50 game than can.
Some people are willing to be the person who is the first on their block to a game and pay full price. If you’re willing to wait a month or two you can get it for half price. What happens in that case is that the person who bought the first instance has a little bit of money so he can continue to buy new games at a higher rate than he would have otherwise.
I think the industry gets more money if you look at the whole picture because I think that people will spent what they can afford, and if you make the hurdle too high for people who are not as well off, they just won’t be able to buy the game at all.”
