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If you enjoy reading this site, you might also want to check out these Think Services sites:
 Game Career Guide (for student game developers.)
 Indie Games (for independent game players/developers.)
 Finger Gaming (news, reviews, and analysis on iPhone and iPod Touch games.)
 GamerBytes (for the latest console digital download news.)
 Worlds In Motion (discussing the business of online worlds.)
 Game Set Watch (the Group's alt.game weblog.) |
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Analyst: Market Expecting PS3 Price Cut By E3
by Chris Remo
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February 25, 2009
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Though Sony has steadfastly refused on comment on potential price cuts to its PlayStation 3, analyst Mike Hickey of Janco Partners believes the company may have no choice but to discount the console -- possibly as early as April.
This week, during its Destination PlayStation event, Sony is briefing its retail partners; citing "increased speculation" by Janco contacts, Hickey believes an announcement of a price adjustment could come within days.
"If Sony does not cut the price of their console, we expect the continuation of languishing PS3 hardware sales and the potential for publishers to accelerate their reallocation of resources away from the PS3 console," Hickey warns. "We believe the market is expecting a PS3 price cut in April or by June at the latest."
The analyst believes a $100 price cut -- which would bring the cheaper 80GB PlayStation 3 model down to $300 -- could "effectively restart unit velocity at retail."
However, Sony is already said to lose money on a per-unit basis with the system, and if it cuts the system's price at retail it will likely attempt to shave excess fat off its its own production expenditures.
To that end, Hickey claims to be "hearing continued speculation that Sony is working on a non-Blu-ray PS3 console."
Such a scenario seems incredibly unlikely, as removing Blu-ray functionality would also break compatibility with the PS3's entire existing game library, all of which is published on Blu-ray Disc. Removing only the Blu-ray movie-playing software would not likely save any significant amount of money.
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Since he repeated such a silly rumor kind of makes me fear he believes their may be some truth to it. *smacks forehead*