June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Activision Blizzard Inc., the world’s largest publisher of video games, criticized console makers for resisting price cuts during the economic slump.

Sony Corp., Nintendo Co. or Microsoft Corp. should have used this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in Los Angeles to lower prices of their systems, Activision Chief Executive Bobby Kotick, whose company makes “Guitar Hero,” “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft,” said in an interview yesterday. Such a move would spur industry growth, he said.

“I was disappointed not to see any sort of aggressive price cutting,” Kotick said. “Of all the things that the hardware companies need to be doing right now, it’s recognizing the difficulties of the economy and pricing their hardware appropriately.”

Kotick joins GameStop Corp.’s Daniel DeMatteo, head of the world’s largest video-game retailer, in saying prices are too expensive to attract consumers during the global economic slump. Worldwide shipments of game consoles and handheld players will probably fall more than 7 percent in the year ending March 2010, the first annual drop in six years, according to UBS AG.

“As the macro economy gets worse this year compared to last year, it’s hard to boost sales of game consoles without a price cut,” Eric Lee, a Tokyo-based analyst for Barclays Capital said by telephone today. “Expectation for an announcement of price cuts had risen before the E3 show.”

Sony Price Cuts

Sony’s games-division chief, Kaz Hirai, on June 3 ruled out any immediate cut to the $400 price of the PlayStation 3, whose sales lag behind Nintendo’s Wii and the Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said that there are no plans to reduce the Wii’s $250 price. The least expensive Xbox costs $200.

“We’re very happy with the price point that we have,” Kazuo Hirai said during an interview at the E3 show. “We will move when we think it’s appropriate at some point in time.”

Sony, based in Tokyo, may not have much room to cut prices. The company’s games division posted a 58.5 billion yen ($605 million) loss in the 12 months ended March 31 and Sony forecasts the business will probably incur a fourth straight annual deficit this fiscal year. Nintendo has maintained the Wii’s price at $250 since the product’s debut 2 1/2 years ago.

Still, Grapevine, Texas-based GameStop, forecast last month that prices of Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii will be lowered this year.

Prices ‘Too High’

“The hardware price points, where they are right now given this economic environment, are too high,” GameStop Chief Executive Officer Daniel DeMatteo said on conference call. “If the platform holders are going to make the numbers that they’ve forecasted for the year, those numbers will have to change.”

Nintendo last month forecast volume sales of the motion- sensing Wii will probably rise less than 1 percent to 26 million consoles this fiscal year, missing estimates at Credit Suisse Group AG and Morgan Stanley. Reducing prices would spur shipments, according to John Riccitiello, chief executive officer of “Sims“-developer Electronic Arts Inc.

“The day that they hit $199, or ultimately $149, you are going to see a very sizable pickup,” Riccitiello said in an interview last month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 5, 2009 01:05 EDT