If Microsoft matches Sony price cut, would the PS3 still do "gangbusters"?

[XanderZane]

richardhutnik said:

Apparently, outside of the mentioning of some game titles, the BIG thing now is, "Just wait until Sonly slashes prices on the PS3, then it will beat the 360!" Well, if Sony slashes prices $50 or $100 and Microsoft follows suit, would the PS3 still do gangbusters and take second place?

 

The PS3 is not going to catch the XBox 360 this year. Whether Sony drops the price $50 or $100. With a $50 price drop, the PS3 will see a nice surge for a few weeks, but then it'll be back to normal. With a $100 price drop, the PS3 sales will be high then the XBox 360 for several months I think, but once the holidays roll in, the Xbox 360 will probably have same sales as the PS3 or slightly better due to the cheap $200 Arcade system. It also depends on WHEN Sony drops the price. Doing at the E3 wouldn't be a bad time, as the PS3 would have sales close or above the Xbox 360 through the summer and still be able to stick with them maybe during the holidays. If Sony waits until the holidays, the XBox 360 lead will continue to grow over the next 5 months. The other big factor is if and when Microsoft does a price drop. Microsoft could easily kill Sony's thunder if they do a price drop immediately after Sony does. I honestly don't think M$ will drop their price until Sony makes the first move. So there are a lot of factors involved. Sony's best bet is to drop the price before the holidays start and hope M$ waits until the holiday to drop their price. Of course the sooner they drop the price, the more money they will lose on each PS3. So it's really a "Catch 22" for them. The best time for Sony would be before Sept.
Sony isn't going to take 2nd place anytime soon. They are over 8 million units behind the XBox 360 in worldwide sales. They were outselling the XBox 360 the beginning of 2008 by about 35-40K units a week. They had gained about 1.3 million units on the XBox 360 before Sept 08 and M$ price drop announcement. They were behind by about 6.2 mill at that time. In just 1 holiday Microsoft's price drop erased that 1.3 million gain Sony got and M$ increased their lead by more then 500K. I truly believe that Sony will only drop $50 off their PS3. Anymore then that will produce millions in loses and Sony doesn't want that.