PS3 Price Cut Coming Very Soon, says Analyst

***wraggster*** · February 24th, 2009, 23:25

In his latest industry note, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey states that "recent channel checks indicate increased speculation for a PS3 price cut announcement from Sony in the next couple of days." Sony's been avoiding a price drop on its PS3 hardware, instead focusing on trying to turn the PS3 business into a profitable one. However, with hardware sales for the console floundering, most industry pundits believe Sony has little choice if it wishes to stay competitive with Microsoft and Nintendo.

"Sony is meeting with retailers this week in Phoenix, where SCEA is holding its annual Destination Playstation conference. We think the company needs to reduce the current price by $100 to effectively restart unit velocity at retail," commented Hickey.

He added, "We are also hearing continued speculation that Sony is working on a non-Blu-ray PS3 console, which could enable them to make the aforementioned hardware price reduction. We believe the market is expecting a PS3 price cut in April or by June (E3) at the latest, so a near term aggressive pricing decision by Sony could provide a positive catalyst for video game related stocks including GameStop, Activision and Take-Two Interactive. If Sony does not cut the price of their console, we expect the continuation of languishing PS3 hardware sales and the potential for publishers to accelerate their reallocation of resources away from the PS3 console."

While a price cut is certainly needed, and likely will happen at some point in the near future, GameDaily BIZ finds it incredibly hard to believe that Sony would launch a non-Blu-ray version of the PS3. Not only did Sony win the high-definition format war, but all of its games are of course produced in the Blu-ray format – and some of them, such as Metal Gear Solid 4, do indeed make use of the extra space on the disc.

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/ne...analyst/?biz=1

**silverstein101** · February 24th, 2009, 23:37

lmao. non blue ray ps3. that is utterly ridiculous.

non-blue blue ray hardware is plausible (psp2). but ps3?

**Shrygue** · February 24th, 2009, 23:43

What, cut Blu-Ray out of the PS3? That'd be a really stupid idea to push through. How would folks play games that are on BD then?

Besides, other than bearing the Cell processor and maybe the expensive price tag, I would have though the big selling point would be the console having the ability to play Blu-Ray disk media. I wonder what would happen if it didn't?

**mcdougall57** · February 25th, 2009, 01:00

Cut it down to the price of a loaf of bread, then were talkin'.

**ICE** · February 25th, 2009, 01:17

Does a non BluRay PS3 make sense to anyone? Its like a non-UMD PSP.

**Triv1um** · February 25th, 2009, 01:35

Its like a non-CD CD-Player.

If a Playstation 3 can't play Playstation-3 games, its not a Playstation 3.

**silverstein101** · February 25th, 2009, 12:38

well i was thinking about it. it would end up being a ps3 that can only play DLC. so a big harddrive, and it can play a few games.

it's still absurd

**lmtlmt** · February 26th, 2009, 05:53

all PS3 games are on bluray, wtf

**ICE** · February 26th, 2009, 06:42

Originally Posted by silverstein101

well i was thinking about it. it would end up being a ps3 that can only play DLC. so a big harddrive, and it can play a few games.

it's still absurd

I dont know how anyone else would feel but if I had to download every game I would stop buying them. My internet is just not fast enough for that to not suck.