If it were ever more apparent than in this current age of peripheral technology, the average gamer is willing to pay out the ears to play their game of choice.  With motion control devices becoming a steady force on fairly expensive consoles and games launching with their own proprietary, scratch that, mandatory controllers.  When is enough...enough?  What is critical mass as far as how many plastic doo-dads a family can put in their game closets?  Barring peripherals, there is also the obvious elephant in the room that consoles, as a whole, have ended up costing consumers more than what the store price tag indicates.  Could this be the year when the consumer demands more for their money?  Or have companies like Nintendo, Activision and EA cemented their place in this generation's driving seat?

As an example, let us look at Activision's major line up this year. Activision is tied to Vivendi and Blizzard, which means they are tied to most movie-licensed games and the biggest beast; World of Warcraft.  As a gaming company, Activision lives off of the sequels of its established franchises, as a result last year they saw revenue of close to $3 billion dollars. This year's line-up includes: Tony Hawk's: Ride, Guitar Hero: On Tour Modern Hits, and an actual new property; DJ Hero. If I were a gambling man, I would venture to say that you will see Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 by year's end as well.  With DJ Hero as the exception, all of the games listed are sequels and if COD4:MW2 [what a terrible name to shorthand] does not come with some plastic version of an AK-47 then the rest of these games come with a peripheral. The price of games that you do not have a plastic guitar for will cost you the prettiest of pennies.

Tony Hawk: Ride = 119.99

DJ Hero = 119.99

These games may very well be fun, bring families together and expose the gamer(s) to something new.  Does this have a price?  Is there a limit?  It is safe to say that if both games are a success that we will see sequels and spin offs of "Guitar Hero-proportions".  With Activison churning out a great deal of licensed 'movie-to-game' properties, as well as the bevy of sequels and spin offs that have already come out/will come out for Guitar Hero in this year alone, this could be a case where rising tides do not lift all boats.

Activision can not bear the brunt of all of gaming woes [however I'd argue that they are the most guilty of milking their customers]. Companies like Electronic Arts had quite the experimental year in 2008.  A company that introduces: Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, Assassin's Creed and even Army of Two within the last two years of this current generation is quite an achievement. Unfortunately, Assassin's Creed was the only real mainstream hit.  Mirror's Edge and Dead Space did reach a million in sales, critics loved both games [for the most part], but they did not seem to catch on with the gaming public.  This year EA has been leaning hard on their sports titles to bring in revenue, which is not surprising [those experimental IP's do not pay for themselves!].

With the announcement of Rock Band: Beatles being $250 dollars, which is already looking like it will be a big seller for having two brands in the name [Rock Band & the Beatles], one can not help to wonder, when will this high-priced gaming bubble burst. In an economy where we are now seeing entertainment trend down[slightly], could it be only a matter of time where a gamer goes to a store and decide NOT to spend $60+ on media that could have sold better at a lower price point?

Lastly we look at consoles.  If you own an Xbox 360 and/or a PS3, then you know that the initial price of entry when you purchased your console was just the springboard into "Oh I have to buy this too!"-ville.  It is still surprising to see what a technology based company will not tell their customers to buy [in fears of scaring off the big sell].  By now you have learned that playing online on an Xbox is going to cost you, or that having a Blu-Ray player in your PS3 is probably going to require an HDTV upgrade [to notice anything remotely...HD]. If you would like to play with someone in real life, well that is going to cost you an extra controller.  Oh you can't connect your console to your new HDTV? That'll be $60 dollars for some decent cables! Xbox 360 has seen quite the boost in sales in regards to their recent price drop of their 'Arcade' unit. What will happen when the entry level model is phased out [similar to the PS3 20g and 60g models]?  What happens when a Xbox 360 Arcade user wants to buy an overpriced hard drive? 

Finally, the console leading the pack in this generation, Nintendo's Wii unit is showing signs of fatigue.  Well, minor fatigue at least, but the Wii could show the future of its current competition it's trouncing every month in sales.  It is no secret that after March, when Nintendo's sales slipped, their stock followed suit.  Is this a case of reaching max capacity with their audience? The recession coming full circle?  Actually, it looks like a combination of both, the Nintendo Wii has been burning twice as bright as its "bigger/better/stronger" counterparts, but as a result of having minimal games to generate interest around [prior to E3] could the Wii be falling twice as fast?  The Wii has also introduced the most peripherals of any console combined in this generation.  I remember using my Super Nintendo "Super Scope 6" for about 2 weeks, before throwing it in the 'game closet'. Subsequently, my mom never bought me another peripheral for my consoles..."waste of money", she says.

Consoles will continue to sell units, games will continue to be played on consoles.  There is no doom-and-gloom here, but the reality is that consumers have a breaking point.  Tony Hawk sales began to slip when the constant sequels proved to be only slight iterations off of its previous releases.  The Madden football franchise is now going through what the Tony Hawk franchise experienced.  Console-wise we are experiencing, cumulatively, the most expensive consoles to ever exist on the market at the same time [the PS3 is only trumped by the $649.99 Neo Geo AES system]. In times of recessions, entertainment does well.  Families and communities come together, but with this current wave of technology we are being forced to play online [in some cases with strangers].  The gaming community is so fragmented, which is a good thing, but the wider this pool spreads more shallow areas are apparent.  Wii owners by one game less than the owners of both the PS3 and Xbox 360, this is a problem. Innovation has a price, as does everything else in this shiny new age of gaming.

The question is, how do we solve these problems?  How do we support this huge wave of technology, but still manage to keep our lights on and food in our bellies?  Since it is not EA, Microsoft, or Sony's job to care, shouldn't it be ours?

***This article comes compliments of The Start Screen & viewers like you***