Nintendo has this price war in the bag! According to EAGames/Sega in 2005 they said that a 175USD price point would gain Nintendo substantial profit. They stated that the price of 170USD was likely going to be Nintendo's final price-point for the Wii. Nintendo said under 300$ and we got a console that sells for 275CDN. If Nintendo would have been turning a profit at 175USD then they are really turning a huge profit at 250USD. This means Nintendo can afford to take hardware losses later on allowing them to drop their hardware price by 2011 below the 100USD mark.
Microsoft's stance in this war is pretty decent, Microsoft had announced they have returned to profitability with their 360 Premium hardware. Indicating a drop in manufacturing costs that is going to help them alot in the short term. Essentially this gives Microsoft the ability to drop their prices a bit. Some like me believe after Elite is launched the core unit could go as low as 299$ competing with the Wii this fall.
Sony has left no room for any logical price cut. Sony was last said to be loosing around 300USD on every single unit. Since they have removed an emulation chip and are working really hard to bring down the manufacturing costs. Sony discontinued their 20-gig platform so they could focus more resources on the 60-gig model. If Sony does cut its price this year or at any point this generation it will likely be a last move. When Sony is so desperate that their willing to take even larger losses to keep the PlayStation brand in tact they will likely cut the price of the PS3 lower.
By 2011, I expect we'll see Wii around 169.99USD , 360 around 199.99USD and PS3 around 299.99USD. Essentially Sony will be forced to cut prices or die, at the moment they have to sell tons of games to make up for their hardware losses that number is only going to keep growing!
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
