UPDATE:
Sony Europe has since commented: “We respect our third-parties’ opinions and their right to express those opinions but we will not be commenting on this story."
Meanwhile, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter also chipped in, accusing Kotick of ‘bluffing.’ “Of course Bobby’s bluffing, and good for him,” he said in a phone interview.
“I think Bobby’s obviously interested in Sony selling as many PS3s as they possibly can, and he’s not happy with their penetration so far. I think he favours a price cut, and would rather see one sooner than later.”
ORIGINAL STORY:
Activision Blizzard bigwig Bobby Kotick has warned that Sony risks losing support of the mega publisher unless it decides to issue a price cut for the PlayStation 3.
“They have to cut the price, because if they don’t, the attach rates [the number of games each console owner buys] are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony,” Kotick told the Times Online.
When prompted as to when the firm may consider dropping support for Sony, the executive added: “When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console — and the PSP [portable] too.”
“Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation,” he said.
Kotick went on to say that his company forked out $500 million to Sony in royalties and other goods back in 2008, which he said “probably still worked out at 400 percent of the profit they made”.