Activision CEO: $199 for consoles critical

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Activision Inc (ATVI.O) Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said on Tuesday that prices on Sony Corp's (6758.T)(SNE.N) PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Xbox 360 video game consoles must fall to $199 in the next two years to reach great mass-market appeal.

Kotick said the PlayStation 3, whose lowest-priced model costs $400, was a good product, but that Nintendo Co Ltd's (7974.OS) wildly popular Wii was setting the standard for the industry. The Wii now costs $250, while the cheapest Xbox 360 is $280.

"The Wii at its price point is now setting a standard and an expectation, and people say, well, the Wii is less complex technically. I don't think that really matters as much to the consumer," Kotick told the Reuters Media Summit.

The key price point for mass adoption was $199, he added.

"In the next 24 months they all will need to be at that $199 price point, and you can imagine Nintendo will be down to the $129 price point over the next few years," he said.

(Click here to see Reuters MediaFile blog)

(Reporting by Gina Keating and Scott Hillis; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)