14 DAY TRIAL // For much of the five months that passed since the beginning of 2009, analysts, pundits and rumors have indicated that Sony needed to cut the price of the PlayStation 3 in order to make it competitive in the console fight, especially when taking on the Xbox 360.
The talk was of taking 100 dollars off the price of the console and of the announcement coming either in April or at the E3 trade show, which takes place at the beginning of June.
Well, Sony did announce a price cut but it was not for the PlayStation 3 but for its older sibling, the PS2. The 9-year-old console has seen its price reach 99 dollars and, as a direct consequence, its sales, at least in North America, spiked. For the month of April, the PlayStation 2 managed to sell 172,000 units, which is quite a bit more than the 127,000 moved by the PS3.
Now, Colin Sebastian, who is an analyst for Lazard Capital Markets, said that Sony needed to cut the price of the PlayStation 3 “likely at some point between the E3 industry conference in June and the end of the summer, as Sony is able to reduce PS3 production costs.” The basis of his analysis is the fact that Sony says it will raise the sales of its leading gaming console by 30%, which can only be accomplished if the price is taken down.
Sebastian stated that “In addition to a $100 price reduction, which would put the PS3 in easier reach of a mass market audience, we note that Sony has a healthy lineup of upcoming first-party video games planned over the next year, including inFAMOUS, God of War III, Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2 and Gran Turismo 5.” So, let's hope that the analysts are right this time and that the price cut really happens.