This was an interesting episode.
1) It’s interesting to hear Pachter’s take that Nintendo was pressured by other developers into making the very Xbox like controller for the Wii U, instead of it being Nintendo’s idea to attract more developers. I think either way the outcome is the same, it’s a way so that Nintendo doesn’t intimidate 3rd party devs into thinking they have use the touch screen on the game pad and it lets players have that alternative for when they want to play a shooter or fighter and not use the gamepad or the Wii remote.
2) I think the heart of the question wasn’t will two packages of the whole game be sold at $40, but whether a game that is only single player or only multiplayer be only $40 instead of $60. I agree with Pachter than the former way seems like it would be possible for publishers to squeeze out more money from everyone but it also seems like it would backfire.
As for the other way. That would probably be a good way for smaller devs who only offer a single player to increase their sales. Afterall, I think when people are choosing which game to buy they look to see big it is. If the single player is short then they would want a bigger multiplayer and visa versa. Sometimes, unless the game is huge like Skyrim, a lot of gamers can’t justify buying a game new for $60 if another game for the same price has a solid single player and a solid multiplayer.
