Price cut - When/How Much

[AmishGramish]

catofellow said: I am going to guess that we will se a price cut for all three units in May. The price for all three console in NA will be.... Xbox 360 - $279.99 former premium bundle w/ HDMI XBox 360 - $379.99 120 GB HD, built in WIFI The XBOX 360 is hardest to predict. We know they probably are going to redesign the console, but how many SKU's are they going to keep? I am predicting that they will cancel the "core" bundle (if they haven't already, it appears to be "sold out" everywhere). Online is so important to Microsoft strategy so I don't think MS wants anybody to buy the thing. PS3 - 400/500 and both SKU's will remain as is. Sony needs large price cut to attract mass market, hopefully blue laser diodes will be less costly for Sony. Wii - 200 as is (250 dollar DVD unit released in September). Cut price too fast w/ Gamecube. Needs moderate cut to allow for future price cuts.

This is plausible, but I think Microsoft will keep the "Premium" at $300, as they want to either lose barely any or earn a few extra dollars, and that new one will probably be $450, because it's a 120GB HDD, but that's if they even make one. If they don't make the new 360 SKU, then I think they'll drop the price of both $50 in the spring and $50 in the fall. I think the Wii will probably drop to $200 in the fall, when the PS3 and 360 get games like Assassin's Creed and GTA: IV, and each will get their exclusives, for the time being. The PS3 will probably drop $50 by an announcement by Sony on March 31st, 2007, their end of fiscal year speech day thing. An announcement on that day would increase their stock price and a lot of people who were waiting it to drop $100 will probably say "screw it" and buy it, because that's the time a lot of great PS3 games will come out. I think it will drop another $50 in the fall or early winter, to bolster holiday sales. A couple days or a couple weeks after Sony drops the price, Microsoft will drop the $50 previously stated, and Nintendo will drop the $50 previously stated, so it's really up to Sony for the fall drop in price. This is just for the U.S. Microsoft will probably just keep the prices of the 360 higher in Japan than they need it, probably cutting just $50 in the fall, or if they really want Japan, they'll drop $100 instead. And I can see the Wii staying at $230 USD in Japan for the rest of the year, as the support for it probably will stay about as high in Japan (and Japan alone) for the rest of the year, so Nintendo won't really have the urge to drop the price. On March 31st, 2008, I think Sony will drop the price of European PS3s by about $125-150 USD, and the Japanese PS3s by about $50.