As should be obvious to everyone now (unless you've been living under a rock for past few years), this console generation brought quite an increase on videogame prices. And while the standard console title costs about $60 U.S. dollars, special edition versions, and the Guitar Hero, and Rock Band games cost well over $100 U.S. dollars -- sometimes even more than that! But guess what? According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, they aren't high enough.

In a earnings call yesterday, he stated the following: "... You know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further."

My reaction to this was something along the lines of, "further?! Are you nuts?!". ...Okay, that's not true. My actual reaction was more like, "further, eh? I doubt that would go well."

Why, you ask? Well if you consider the already high prices of games, and the fact that not everyone has the money to go and buy 'em at full price, this could only result in more people resorting to the used game market for game purchases. Which would only hurt them, as they don't make money off used game sales. Which any smart person (not that Bobby Kotick isn't smart) should notice.

So what should they do? Simple. Keep the prices where their at. Or better yet, lower 'em. Though the latter doesn't seem very likely. As they -- like every other developer/publisher out there -- are gonna try to make as much they can off their games, especially when you consider how much they spend making the game. And the best way to do that? Sell 'em for $60.

But thankfully, this probably won't be happening for the foreseeable future. Why? Well, if payed attention to what he said, you'd notice he said "if it was left to me," (emphasis added) which implies that he has no control over such things.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean it won't ever happen. As if Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot is right about the cost of development during the next console cycle, then a price hike is almost certain. As that's what happened at the start this generation, so what's stopping it from happening again?

Still, I doubt increasing prices would go down well consumers. We already spend a lot as it is on games, anymore and I bet we'll start seeing sales drop. As for some (such as myself) who can't buy games very often because of how expensive they are, it would become nigh impossible for them to buy games at full price.

Which is precisely why I think that prices of games should -- if anything -- be lowered. As that would allow more people to buy game at full price, which leads to higher sales. But unless we can somehow stop the price of development from climbing, that probably won't happen.