Look, we all know the PS3 is at an uncomfortable price point for most gamers. Sure, the price has slowly moved closer to an acceptable range, but it’s still too high for some. It doesn’t take an analyst to see that. So we could just as easily guess deduce that a PS3 price drop is likely. But here’s another analyst to tell us about the same thing.
Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian says that a $100 price drop for Sony’s PS3 is likely. He cites Sony’s planning for a 30 percent boost in PS3 sales in 2010. He said that the drop is “likely at some point between the E3 industry conference in June and the end of the summer, as Sony is able to reduce PS3 production costs.”
Of course, we hear that every E3 and every TGS and every GDC…
This could be the perfect time for a drop, though, as high-profile games like God of War III and Gran Turismo 5 are scheduled to come down the line. That $300 price point is a “sweet spot,” says the analyst, and that anything beyond a $100 would be seen as negative.
“For Sony PlayStation, we believe the next 12 months are critical to regain market share, particularly with Nintendo losing some momentum near-term, and with Microsoft likely introducing a new gesture-based user interface,” Sebastian says.
I want to be an analyst when I grow up! You have to wonder how much better off Sony would be if they launched with that price point.
[Via Gamasutra]