14 DAY TRIAL // After the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and its pretty big announcements from all of the major console manufacturers, the rumor mill started spinning once more about the things they didn't say or weren't elaborated upon enough.
Luckily, in order to share some more insight to the gaming industry and to the average gamers, Wedbush Morgan Securities' top analyst, Michael Pachter, has revealed his views on how the console market will behave until the end of the year.
He has once again preached the fact that the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation 3 will get a price cut before the holiday season, even though representatives from the two companies have denied such a thing time and time again. He has also said that, in order to prevent losing a considerable market share to its rivals, Microsoft will implement bundles and promotions for its Xbox 360 device.
“Wii supply has finally exceeded demand, so we expect hardware sales to show year-over-year decreases for the first half of 2009,” Pachter explains. “In order to hit its full-year Wii shipment forecast, we expect Nintendo to cut the price of the Wii before the holiday, likely to $199.99. In the second half of the year, we expect Sony to cut price for the PS3, and if the cut is deep enough, we expect Microsoft to respond (either with bundles or with a price cut of its own, even as Microsoft just introduced a[n] Xbox 360 Elite bundle with free games Halo 3 and Fable II).”
So, there you have it, straight from the analyst's mouth. Whether or not his predictions will actually come true and a lower price tag will be placed upon the Wii and the PlayStation 3 before the year ends is still uncertain, though. Perhaps, if some of the executives from the two companies will reveal some big things in the near future, we might know this for sure.