14 DAY TRIAL // Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has once again shared his predictions about the following months, saying that June’s E3 2012 expo will see the announcement of price cuts for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 consoles.
The games industry is still going strong but the recession has caused some serious losses in terms of sales for both consoles and videogames in the U.S.
According to analyst Michael Pachter, in order to boost profits, both Sony and Microsoft will have to cut the price on their platforms, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, respectively.
These announcements are likely to happen during the E3 2012 expo in June and will no doubt help Microsoft and Sony at least detract a bit of attention from Nintendo’s Wii U announcement.
"We expect hardware sales to rebound once price cuts are implemented, but expect a recurrence of the dip next holiday, partially buffered by some modest contribution from the introduction of the PS Vita in February and the Wii U later this year,” Pachter said, via Game Industry, about the general sales.
“Recent slowing of Xbox 360 hardware sales could cause Microsoft to consider a price cut by E3. PS3 hardware sales should continue to lag those of the Xbox 360, and we expect sales to trend downward by 10 - 20% monthly, until Sony cuts prices once again, likely at E3," he added.
While some rumors point to the announcement of next generation consoles at this year’s E3, Pachter is quite adamant that such a thing won’t happen until 2013.
“We do not expect an announcement of a next-generation console from Microsoft until the Xbox 360 core model is priced below $200, likely around this time next year,” he added.
Until then, however, he expects the March games industry sales data to continue its downward trend, even if the hugely successful Mass Effect 3 title was launched at the beginning of last month.