True, they aren't going to say when the price cut will happen, but it will defintely happen before the holidays hit, that's for sure. I hope it happens before the Star Wars Xbox 360/Kinect bundle gets released. I would love to have $50 off of that.

That decrease in Sony's lead was because of the Xbox 360 slim boost when it released, it will soon even out

do the gap percentage when the ps3 slim released, because i bet it ripped a gaping hole in the percentage

I wonder if someone at Microsoft has this line of reasoning for not doing a X360 price cut just yet:

a) "If we cut the price, but Kinect isn't as big as last year (8m shipped in 2 months) we'll sell less units anyway, so we might as well keep the money!"

b) "If Kinect is as big or bigger than last year, why cut the price? Sales and profits will be similar without us doing anything in particular."

Those do seem like the most likely outcomes for the holiday ramp up though - a huge holiday based on a price cut that wouldn't have been huge without a price cut just strikes me as unlikely.

will eventually achieve soon

They plan to be #1 in Europe?

They probably couldn't even achieve that WITH a price cut.

Not cutting the price of the XBOX 360 is a big mistake, let's see if he sticks to his word.

They said they plan to be #1 in Europe and #1 Worldwide, something I think would be impossible for them to achieve. Microsoft need to fire people from their PR department, nothing but talk.

If they want to be number one they'll need to cut the price, no doubt about it. Personally I don't think they can get number 1 though. I think 360 has done well to grow the brand/install base in EMEAA but this gen they won't get outside number 3 I think, although if Wii sales really drop with Wii U they might grab number 2 but even that might be too much.

Looking at number of weeks on the market the PS3 has outsold the 360 by a comfortable margin and always at a higher price. The price cut is only going to push the PS3 further ahead unless MS respond in some fashion

Kinect simply isn't going to work well enough in all regions this late in the game. Demand has been much less than the US and if you take UK out of the equation not really that huge at all across EMEAA

I like what he's saying but MS has left it too late this gen to really get to grips with differentiated marketing by country/region. For too long a single, US led message has been given and although I'm sure improvements can be made I don't see it being enough to trouble PS3. Sony are already ahead of MS in doing this and in more countries with better PSN support so MS is definitely in catch up not take the lead mode IMHO

I liked his comments, a mix of sensible with some PR that he has to say but at least doesn't overplay. His job is to aim for number 1 and to talk positive but his chance of getting number 1 is looking slim at the moment. Given I suspect PS3 will remain viable longer in EMEAA than 360 via gentle introduction to PS2 dominant markets time is against MS as well.

Personally I think in terms of PS3/360 the outcome in terms of places in US and EMEAA is already set and unlikely to change. The play is for market-share and changing the current level of the gaps.

As for when MS cut the price that really depends on their view on falling further behind in EMEAA vs profits, regional vs global pricing and their confidence in their real expectations (i.e. their internal sales forecasts not some notion of number 1).

If I was MS I'd wait and see how much extra demand the PS3 really rustles up in EMEAA. If it turns out to be significant then I think MS will either have to cut or accept letting the gap grow larger in PS3's favour in the region.

1) It's fairly obvious they would have no plans to cut now. They will be watching console sales trackers to see the effect of the PS3 cut before they even start to think.

2) How many price cuts are actually announced because a journalist happened to say "are you going to cut the price?"?