14 DAY TRIAL // The Xbox 360 will continue to beat the PlayStation 3 in sales this year, at least according to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.
The console war is becoming a neck-and-neck race between Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, as the Nintendo Wii is seeing its sales slip due to market saturation.
Seeing as how the PS3 has the advantage in terms of exclusive games over the Xbox 360 this year, many have already claimed that 2011 will see Sony finally defeat Microsoft in North America.
Games industry analyst Michael Pachter begs to differ, saying that games are no longer a deciding factor in console sales.
"It's really hard to argue that console sales are tied to release schedules, now that we're in the sixth year of the console cycle. I doubt that many hard core gamers have held off purchasing a PS3 while they waited for Killzone 3 to come out," he said to IndustryGamers.
The price is where it all comes down to, according to Pachter, and this is where Microsoft has the advantage, even if its Xbox 360 doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a PS3.
"At this point in the cycle, the only people who have waited are those who planned to buy a console at a price point under $200, and while I think that there are a lot of those people, pricing remains stubbornly high. Microsoft gained an advantage with Kinect, and a 4Gb Kinect bundle costs the same as the entry level PS3, allowing Microsoft to maintain its sales advantage (I know that the 4Gb bundle doesn't 'do everything', but cost-conscious consumers appear not to care)."
The only way for Sony to actually defeat Microsoft is to adopt an even more aggressive pricing strategy, and drop the price of a regular PS3 to $200, making it irresistible to gamers. This, however, won't happen, as Sony is content to waiting for Microsoft's first move.
"Sony can retake the advantage if it can afford to lower price and attract the cost-conscious consumer, but I think that they will wait to see what Microsoft does first, then merely match them on pricing, so I expect Microsoft to remain ahead in 2011," he concluded.
What do you think? Will Sony manage, through its current price and array of quality exclusive games, to defeat Microsoft's Xbox 360?