Analyst: U.S. 80Gb PS3 Price To Drop

The incorrigible analyst Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Morgan Securities, has struck again with his ever-informative brand of gaming speculation.

He's continuing his analysis regarding PS3 price cut - although this time he's reticent even to put a season to the date.

Instead he says that the U.S. 80Gb PS3, which was only announced last week, will get a price as soon as the 60Gb is sold out.

"We believe that there are presently 2 – 3 million 60Gb PS3s produced and not yet sold, and expect the entire supply to be diverted to the US to honour the new lower price point”, says Pachter. "Once these units are sold through, we expect the company to lower the price of its 80Gb model to $499 (£294) on a standalone basis."

Okay, let's get this straight: Pachter must be talking about the 60Gb PS3s that contain the Emotion Engine Chip (EEC) for PS2 hardware emulation. If he's not, then SPOnG has to wonder what European Sony fans are supposed to buy while all 60Gb PS3s are heading to the U.S. seeing as how we are not getting an 80Gb version.

According to Pachter, that $499 price point isn't moving after that, "In our view, the Sony entry level price of $499 is here to stay", he said.

Let's remember that... $499 = entry level price for PS3 = 'here to stay'.

But then we are told by the Pacht-Man "We expect the $499 price cut to be maintained until early next year, when the 80GB model will likely be cut again to $399 (£195)," Pachter said.

So, either $399 is now some kind of "standing just in front of the entry" level or $499 'entry level' is not here to say? And all in a matter of paragraphs!

We're confused.

Although SPOnG will be the first to say that the PS3 needs a more substantial price cut – especially in the UK where we're still stuck paying £425 for it – there are only so many cuts Sony can make before customers lose confidence in the platform. That leads SPOnG to believe that the latter part of Pachter's analysis, at least, is incorrect.

The Xbox 360 did not dodge the scalpel of Pachter's analysis, either. Sure, he got it wrong when he said that Microsoft would announce a price cut at E3. But he's got a damn good reason.



Don't lose the faith, true believers!

We, of course, contacted industry analyst, Michael Spilligan - Senior Entertainment analyst at Nomoru Wahrheit Kennis - for his comment. Spilligan pointed out, "I know Michael and I respect his work, I have to agree that sooner or later a piece of consumer electronics will enter price-cut territory. That's simply the corner-buttress of the common front-facing economic dynamic. I think you're misconstruing the phrase "here to stay", which, from the analytical perspective should be taken ontologically in a specialist argot. But then again, you chaps aren't paid the big bucks. Ciao!"

^{Source: Next-Gen}