With PAX East generating industry buzz this weekend and E3 coming up so soon, a big rumor about another price cut for the PlayStation 3 has caught our eye. The console is already holding steady at $249 for the 160 gigabyte model, but one analyst claims that the PS3 may drop in price even more come E3 this year.
It hasn’t been that long since the PS3 received a price drop to $249, and with Sony’s president confirming that there would be no announcement of a new system at E3 this year, Sony may need a trump card if they are going to wow non-mobile gamers at the convention and boost hardware sales. Michael Pachter, a Wedbush Securities analyst, foresees a price drop for the PS3 to give gamers something to hold onto to breathe life back into sales, which are currently being beat out by the Xbox 360 monthly in the U.S..
It was almost a year ago when the PS3 was catching up to the Xbox 360 in global sales, but the tides have changed as overall hardware sales on current-gen systems slow down. Pachter believes this price cut could rebound PS3 sales, but not considerably.
“We expect hardware sales to rebound once price cuts are implemented, but expect a recurrence of the dip next holiday, partially buffered by some modest contribution from the introduction of the PS Vita in February and the Wii U later this year… PS3 hardware sales should continue to lag those of the Xbox 360, and we expect sales to trend downward by 10 – 20% monthly, until Sony cuts prices once again, likely at E3.”
Pachter also predicts that Microsoft could be considering a price cut for the Xbox 360 as well – falling in line with the rumored Xbox Lite (a cheaper Xbox 360 model).
“Recent slowing of Xbox 360 hardware sales could cause Microsoft to consider a price cut by E3. We do not expect an announcement of a next- generation console from Microsoft until the Xbox 360 core model is priced below $200, likely around this time next year.”
Pachter predicted a price cut for the Xbox 360 last year before E3, but that never came into fruition. Could he be right about the PS3 this time? Should we even be listening to his predictions on this?
Does the PS3 and/or Vita need a price cut and is it time to unveil a new home console?
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Follow me on Twitter @TyRawrrnosaurus.
Source: GameIndustry.biz
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Well, the sales are declining because once you buy one there is no need to get another one…unlike the other system.
HA good point. I got my PS3 4 years ago and its still running strong. My buddy has gone through 3 Xbox’s in that time (1 was a replacement, he had to buy 2 though)
I’ve gone through 3 Xboxs my self. My friends each one have gone through 3-4 them selves.
It’s hard for me to believe anyone who says they’ve had their system from day one. I think I got my Xbox for the first gears of war and it red-ringed on that game, day one, like 3 hours into the campaign.
If MS had just put a fan on the CPU we might have avoided this mess.
Funny… I found this page because my PS3 died this week. When my 360 died, MS replaced it for free. No such luck with Sony.
My Xbox has been with me for 3 years. I might pick up and switch to Sony because the whole Xbox market and audience pisses me off. If sony could get some more xbox games they could swing this around. However, I like My Xbox Live. It’s good and Sony’s online system has proven to be lackluster.
This is no surprise really. I barely is my PS3 (it’s a good system) but the overall experience doesn’t match the 360 and it appeals to an even wider audience here. I highly doubt Xbox has been leading in hardware sales for over 7 months in a row because of old Xbox’s going out.
It would be awesome if the vita got a price cut and those who bought it early (before the price cut) get like a certain amount of free games like they did with the 3DS.
yeah! like… umm… wait, they don’t even have many games to offer… especially of Nintendo Quality… it would feel like more of a rip-off than the system already is.
1. Could be a selection of the psp games (200+ titles to my understanding)
2. Could be games that have/haven’t been ported yet from the PSN.
3. Could be for a few vita titles that haven’t been announced yet.
I AM allowed to be optimistic…
You’re implying the 3DS had amazing games at this point in its life-cycle? That’s just being kind of ignorant…
Yeah it had allot of good titles but at the same time the titles were just repeat titles, remakes and such. Which I think is kinda boring.
I’m trying to remember the last time this guy was right about anything..
He accurately predicted the last PS3 price drop.
wow… Patcher again. that idiot needs something he says to actually happen before he kills himself. Maybe if he says price drop enough and every year, he will be right at least once before he ends his miserable life.
or, to be less “rude” quits his job or gets fired for being a usless analyst.
I have 3 ps3′s and 4 360′s, The ps3′s I replaced because there was a newer model, but the RROD has continued to plague my 360′s. Both systems are good, but ps3 has more exclusives, so I buy all games on ps3.