Sony Should Consider PS3 Price Cuts In Tough Holiday Battle
With production costs still a formidable challenge, Sony has said not to expect Christmas price cuts for the PlayStation 3 — but EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich told PS3 Blog in an interview that he believes the PS3 may be taking a big hit from recent Xbox 360 price reductions. Ahead of September’s NPD results expected next week, analysts are bracing for a mixed bag in video game performance. The month’s results are expected to suffer greatly in year-over-year comparisons to last year’s September, when Halo 3 saw its record-breaking launch. Despite this, Divnich estimates that Xbox 360 sold 320,000 units in September — a new monthly record for the console, and a 31 percent weekly sales increase over August. On the other hand, Divnich anticipates PS3 sales to decline 7 percent to 43,000 units a week. While the analyst says the surge in sales is largely attributable to mainstream consumers attracted to the Xbox 360 Arcade SKU’s sub-$200 price point, Divnich warns the monthly NPD may turn out to show the PS3 suffering by comparison.