I do not say that Microsoft wont lower their price someday, but why should they rush to it before sommer? Isn't better to come out after sommer and do the price cut? The reason for this is that I have problem to see why Microsoft whould do as high price cut as 100 USD. They still need to regain some of the money the lost during the old generation. I think Microsoft will do a 50 USD price cut max after sommer to gain momentum before the holiday season (when people actuly buy some consols). Nintendo will most probarbly do the same, but I think they will do it anyway, because I belive that 250 USD was only in place to gain some more money from the early adopters. But I do think that Nintendo might launch some new colors. A price drop to early for Microsoft will only lead to headlines like, Microsoft fears the competition is lowering the price and more like that. If they get any press at all. When I open ordinary Swedish newspapper all the press is more or less about the Wii and how cool it is. Even if sony is manufacturing most of their part themselves I do not see the economical space to do a price cut as early as march. We are talking about a consol that is selling with a loss of roughly 200 USD in USA, in Japan even more. In europe they could mayby do a price drop (simple because it cost 900 USD here in Sweden, but WW no way) but I still think that they will wait for at least 6 months. If they sales will be totaly rubbish in EU then I could see a price drop earlier.

You are missing the point. You cut prices when people aren't buying consoles. That is why price cuts traditionally happen in May.

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.

Also, the end of the fiscal year for Nintendo and Sony are on March 31st, so there is a lot more news about the company as a whole around that time, so they want to increase their stock prices. And the process of making parts of the products get cheaper as more and more new machines come out. As in a new silicon chip is going to be made that greatly reduces the overall cost to make Blu-Ray Diodes, so there will be more on the market, and they will be cheaper, starting in April, so the price of the PS3 may drop quicker than originally thought.

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.

 I still wait for this. My Wii was 250 though.