His latest prediction is that we may see a PlayStation 2 price cut late this year to help continue to spur commodity sales. Others have speculated that Sony walks a fine line between killing the cash cow that the PlayStation 2 represents to them at the moment and preventing the PlayStation 3 from achieving market potential. A price drop too soon would lead to greater losses on the PlayStation 3 as well as reduced PlayStation 2 sales, while delaying a price drop for too long will lead to the 360 and Wii capturing too significant share of the market. Those supporting this strategy suggest that this may be why Sony appears relatively unconcerned about the relatively low sell-through rates of the PlayStation 3. If true, and if Pachter's correct, it's also highly unlikely that we'll see any significant price movements on the PlayStation 3 until next year.
Pachter agrees with the delayed PlayStation 3 price drops, stating that a price drop is likely to be announced to coincide with the launch of Metal Gear Solid 4. In summary however, he believes it's a slow steady decline until the next lot of price cuts, stating, "We continue to expect higher average console prices to be an impediment to rapid sell-through of hardware, and we expect cycle-to-cycle declines of 10% or more for hardware sales to persist through the end of summer 2007."
Pachter spoke recently to Bonus Round about a number of topics, including how he comes to his conclusions, where he gets his information from, and whether or not he tracks his predictions.
Loading...
