14 DAY TRIAL // In September, both the Xbox 360 Elite from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 Slim from Sony will be retailing for the price of 299 dollars, which is 100 lower than in August. A cut of one third of the price of gaming consoles is pretty significant however you look at it and the impact on the videogame industry will likely be felt in the coming months.
All the analysts agree that a price war between Sony and Microsoft is a good thing as a reduced price point will mean that more players will pick up a home gaming console, which will help improve the performance when compared to 2008. But some are already calling for more price reductions.
Michael Pachter, who is an analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, has said that Microsoft's move is designed to keep its device competitive with that from Sony, but there's a chance that another 50 dollars can be cut from the price of the Xbox 360. Still, he believes that while the PS3 might offer Sony a bump in sales, the overall balance of power in the console world will remain largely unchanged.
Jessie Divnich from EEDAR also sees room for another cut, pointing out that the Microsoft console is somewhat less powerful and feature laden than the PlayStation 3, while not being a match for the Wii in terms of popularity. Still, the cut will likely not come until after the holiday shopping season, which will be used to see how the recent moves pan out.
With the two price cuts going into effect in September, the NPD Group numbers that will be released in October will be watched with a lot of interest. Of course, that also depends on the titles, which big publishers like Activision and Electronic Arts release for the various platforms and on the amount of money customers are prepared to spend on videogames this fall.