There's alot of reasons why the marketshare increase from a 360 price cut would nulify any benefit it could give to the PS3 but because that has nothing to do with this thread I won't go into too much detail about it. The recent price drops of the XBOX 360 has pretty much put it in the affordability ranges of around 60-85% of households in the western world (estimation) , it can be bought for as little as £99 ($198) which is dirt cheap in the Uk (and around about the cost of a PS2) ,also taking into concideration the current economic problems pretty much everyone is having to deal with and we have a strong case for a XBOX 360 price cut , right ?

Well possibly wrong , when Microsoft drive down the price of the XBOX 360 they effectivley drive down the perceived value of the XBOX 360  , in the UK it launched with a price tag of £300 and can now be obtained for as little as £99 that's a 66% price drop in 3 years ! and taking into concideration the fact that the Wii is £170 ($340) and the PS3 is £280 ($560) the consumer is probably thing "Wtf " , it is my understanding that a siginifant % of the consumer won't understand that MS are selling these 360's for little or no profit at all so i'm almost positive it'll convince the consumer that the 360 is the inferior /cheaper option to it's rivals , that won't stop it from selling (obviously) but that will adversley affect the image it has.

The PS3 with it's £280 ($560) price tag and the Wii £170($340) are likely to be seen as more premium options for the consumer now and it's almost guaranteed any price cut on the PS3 will have a much larger affect on it's sales than a XBOX 360 price cut , MS has effectivley changed the perceive value i for marketshare in exchange for reducing the perceived value of the XBOX brand.

Okay, except the Wii launched vastly cheaper than the other two consoles and the majority of people didn't deem it inferior.

I can understand your argument but I'm sad to say it doesn't hold up.

Er no. The only thing that matters to a core gamer is quality software, the casual gamer (and in my opinion the gamer that least matters to us here) cares about price and accessibility. The 360 is making a play for both the casual (with this price cut) and the core gamer.

When a parent asks the sales rep what to buy for their kid or family, I guarantee the sales rep will say to buy a Wii still.

@ MontanaHatchet The Wii situation is different from the XBOX 360.

It had a low and fixed price point since launch

The Wii's perceived value has nothing to do with it's price now because it has a foothold on the gaming industry, Nintendo don't have to battle declining demand with price cuts.

If that's the case then they should have kept the $599 price.

Its possible, but remember, even the I-pod has its most basic model starting at $50. Price sensitivity is a huge issue! $400 is not a good starting place. Many people are like "I dont care what it can do, Im not paying that much for a game system"

@ Fishy , obviously the PS3 has to be some what within the price range of the 360 for it to be competetive , suggesting Sony shouldn't have reduced the price is ridiculous because no console would sell well at that price point , it was simply unfaffordable.

Maybe you should try considering what i'm saying.

Anyone who knows gaming understands the value of the 360 vs PS3, WI. If someone dosent understand gaming they dont care about perceived value they look at the price and the gaming library

He does have somewhat of a point.

The perceived value is lower due to the price, but I don't think it will impact sales.

i'm afraid you have it backwards...

the 360 and the ps3 give nearly identical experiences game-wise. by dropping the price to the 360 it is the ps3 that gets devalued. why pay more for a nearly identical experience?

the only thing the ps3 has on the 360 is blu-ray, when they were close in cost it was like saying, "hey, a nearly free blu-ray player!!" and that would be a good excuse to get a ps3 over a 360. now you're paying half the cost of the console towards a blu-ray player...which if what you want is a game console, not a movie player, why would you spend more to get the same thing??