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/news/ps3-price-cut-coming-very-soon-says-analyst/?biz=1
"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/news/ps3-price-cut-coming-very-soon-says-analyst/?biz=1