Patcher Expects All Three Consoles To Cut Prices This Year!

[dunno001]

All 3? I don't see that happening. This year, for home consoles, I see one price drop- for the 360. It will be when Natal launches, and the non-Natal 360s will get a price drop to try to clear them out, making only Natal bundles availiable for new system owners. Sony's margin on the PS3 is still too thin, and the shareholders are going to want to see ROI on the PS3. So that won't drop in price this year. I'm also thinking that Nintendo's game this year will be finally getting us new colors, and that will invigorate sales without needing a price cut.

Now, if he said portables, I might believe him. The DSiLL is slated for the west, with a rumored price of $229.99. A price higher than the Wii won't fly, nor will a price equal to the Wii. I see it launching at $179.99. The original DSi, at $169.99, will be too close to the LL, and I see a small drop to $149.99 on it. DSL is the tricky one. I think that Nintendo is not going to want to support 3 different DS models (all in several colors), and the DSL will be quietly phased out. If it takes too long, it may get a drop to $99.99 to try to clear it out.

The PSP is even tougher, as I see 2 different possible scenarios. There will be a price drop on the PSP Go, I think that's a given. In case 1, it will see a drop to $199.99. And to further push the regular PSP value, I think that the 3000 will drop in price to $149.99, partially in an effort to stave off the DS price drop boost. Case 2 will have Sony leaning very heavily on the PSP Go. The 3000 will stay at $169.99, but the Go will see a huge relaunch, and an equally huge price cut, to $149.99. This will be to try to persuade new PSP owners to get the Go, where Sony has the ability more to restrict game resale, and piracy is harder to do. The only problem I see with this is that it kills the Go's margin. But if Sony really wants to push PSN and PSP downloads, aggressively pricing the Go is a must, since all of its consumers who want to buy games don't have another option.