Videogame analyst and warrior of the north Michael Pachter has expressed his dismay at the perceived decline of videogame hardware. Looking at the July 2009 sales figures, Pachter believes that “the manufacturers have made a strategic error by maintaining pricing for too long.”
“The Wii remains at its November 2006 launch price of $249.99, and the core PS3 SKU has not seen a price cut since October 2007,” he states. “We think that the negative software trend is less attributable to a weak software line-up, and can only conclude that until consumers are sufficiently interested in buying consoles, it will be difficult for publishers alone to drive sales higher each month.
“Fortunately, we anticipate imminent price cuts to occur soon. Rumors of an imminent price cut by Sony and a console upgrade by Microsoft are rampant. One rumored scenario includes clearing the 80Gb PS3 model to $249 from $399 and launching a new 120 Gb PS3 Slim for $299 and clearing the 60 Gb Xbox 360 Pro at $199 and re-pricing the 120 Gb Xbox 360 Elite at $249.”
Pachter believes that neither Sony nor Nintendo will hit their targets without a price cut. He also believes the DS, DSi and PSP will each see price reductions, and adds that the PSPgo will retail at $199 some time in 2010.
