PS3 Fanboy

Will they? Won't they? This is worse than Ross and Rachel. Ah, the 90s. Simpler times. Since Thursday, we've been questioning whether the 80GB PS3 will drop to $499 once the 60GB version sells out. We're fairly comfortable with our prediction that it will and Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Morgan, agrees.

Pachter states that "the Sony entry level price of $499 is here to stay" and that "there are presently 2 – 3 million 60Gb PS3s produced and not yet sold." This number constitutes up 75% of PS3s in the hands of consumers right now, so the idea of that many selling out before the end of the month, as Reeves suggested, is ridiculous. Pachter's reasoning for why he expects the 80GB model to drop in price is similar to most people's. The 80GB PS3 should cost Sony as much, if not less, to produce than the 60GB model thanks to removal of the Emotion Engine (which, at this point, is the PS3's equivalent of the appendix). Not to mention that Motorstorm is included in the 80GB box, so removing the game will allow the bundle to drop in price by at least $50.

Pachter ends his report by saying that he expects "the $499 price point to be maintained until early next year, when the 80Gb model will likely be cut again to $399." We're not so sure about this ourselves, but we'd definitely like to see it happen.

Wedbush Morgan analyst David Pachter just can't seem to stay out of the spotlight -- he's already been quoted on here today claiming a price cut for the PS3 is due this summer. Now he's estimating console sales for April and it seems like he's decided that April was the worst month for the PS3 so far. Citing a mere 100,000 consoles sold for the US (these are NPD numbers, so it's just the US), this is about 30,000 fewer units than the previous month and way lower than the competition. He estimated 300,000 Wii's sold, 175,000 360's, the usual dominance of the DS and the PS2 selling better than both the PS3 and 360.

Software sales are up 24%, he estimates. Chances are this is no thanks to the PS3 since it released zero exclusive titles. He says that upcoming multiplatform games (like those based on movies) will sell the best on the PS2. This is probably due to userbase, plus cost of games for the PS2 seems to have dropped to a $39.99 price point (at least, around Georgia it seems that way). Sales of the PS2 may taper off once people replace the system for a next-gen one (but want to keep their current library), but that's only if the PS3 can show its muscle. In the coming months, that seems very likely.

[via GameDaily]

Videogame analyst superstar Michael Pachter expects there to be a price cut for the PlayStation 3 by the end of the year, and says that it might even come as early as this summer. GI.biz quotes Pachter,

"It is possible that Sony's cost of production for the PS3 has declined to the point that the company may consider a hardware price cut some time this summer, and we may see a price cut for the PS2 before the holidays."

As long as Sony's manufacturing costs have dropped to a reasonable rate, I'd heartily encourage Sony to drop the price of the PS3 as soon as possible. It's very clear that people desperately WANT a PS3, but just can't afford it. Dropping it to $500US and then marketing the hell out of the price drop would do wonders for their sales. Just look at what a 30 dollar price drop did for the PSP.

The most recent Wedbush Morgan report has been released and in it, Michael Pachter states that he believes that Blu-Ray may actually be the deciding factor in the console wars. At the end of the PS3/Wii/360 generation, he expects Sony to 'win' with a 36% market share, largely due to the strong movie industry support of Blu-Ray.

Interestingly though, he also states that this console cycle will essentially be "a dead heat, and each manufacturer will have sufficient market share to generate significant profits." This is great news for videogame fans everywhere, since an evenly divided market will mean that each of the consoles will have a chance to grow and mature as they age. This may be PS3 Fanboy, but I really don't want any of the current consoles to pull a Dreamcast.