14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft surprised quite a lot of people when it cut, last year in September, the price of the Xbox 360 so that the Arcade, the version of the gaming console that does not have a hard drive, went under the price gamers paid for a Nintendo Wii. More people were surprised by the stubbornness of Sony, which refused to drop the price of the PlayStation 3, even in the face of a growing sales gap between its console and the Microsoft made one.
Now, at the beginning of 2009, all major console producers are saying they don't think that price cuts are the answer to the worldwide economic downturn, which starts affecting the videogaming industry.
Michael Patcher, who is an analyst watching the industry for Wedbush Morgan, begs to differ. He believes that “While we acknowledge that the recession will impact software sales somewhat, we note that the majority of software sales between January and October are user-driven and we think that the hardcore gamer population is still on the upswing, with high price points for the PS3 and Xbox 360 causing many to defer purchases late into the cycle.”
In other words, gamers who have not bought a current gen console will continue to push the purchasing decision into the future because of the current crisis. So, there's a real possibility that the producer who drops its price first can gain a huge advantage in sales.
Patcher adds that the PlayStation 3 from Sony will see its price fall to 299 dollars in April, which could lead to a pretty significant shift in buying patterns, considering that the PS3 also has a Blu-ray player, which is seen as good value by potential customers. The analyst also thinks that Microsoft is likely to counter such a move from Sony by dropping the price of the Pro variant of the Xbox 360 around the time E3 debuts.