PS3 and Xbox 360 price cuts likely at E3

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter believes Microsoft and Sony are likely to announce Xbox 360 and PS3 price cuts at E3 in June.

“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,” he said in a March NPD preview note.
“Recent slowing of Xbox 360 hardware sales could cause Microsoft to consider a price cut by E3.”

Pachter went on to say he doesn’t expect Xbox 720 to be announced until next year.

“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.”

Microsoft’s most recent comment on Xbox 360’s as-yet-unannounced successor is that “there will be no talk of new Xbox hardware at E3 or anytime soon”.

There is still a lot of room for price cuts on the current generation of hardware, but I wouldn’t expect anything ground breaking in terms of deals, its more likely that hardware manufacturers will create more value bundles, with products like Kinect and game bundles being added to packages to improve value for money, its most likely the hardware wont see significant cuts until after the launch of next gen hardware, much as was the case with the PS2 after the launch of PS3.

Source: CVG