As Avinash said, I also believe that the PS3 pricing strategy will largely depend on MS's strategy for a while. I can't see the PS3 falling below the 360 again until 360 gets a price cut (or if Natal absolutely explodes), so as long as the prices are the same, Sony should be happy. If 360 gets a cut, PS3 may have to follow (hence Spring 2010 might happen, depending on 360). Obviously, if there were no price cuts for like 18-24 months, then Sony could probably set their own strategy completely independant of MS's.

PS3: spring or fall?

@GreyianStorm

Like I've said before, PS3 has never dropped price in order to compete with MS. Sony has been dropping price along with the concept of demand. At certain points you make more money selling a console for a cheaper price. If you do so before, you take extra losses. The strategy of cutting price in accordance with competitor price drop has been largely an MS thing this gen.

Sony will NOT drop price if 360 drops price. They will drop price when they are ready to. If it happens that they drop price after an xbox cut, it will be purely coincidental.

Fair enough. Although I think that would be a foolish move on MS's part. Perhaps if they cut the price twice, once in spring and once in autumn, but slashing $50-100 of the 360 early in the year would leave the holidays open for Sony to counter.

In my opinion, both companies will wait until late next year. MS possibly cutting it with Natal, and Sony probably holding out as long as possible to try and earn some profit.

^See they can cut in the spring then stealth cut in the fall by bundling NATAL at the same price, I think MS will want to cut out the knees from Sony's motion wand, so a price cut in the spring is what I think they'll go for.

That's reasonable.

I would imagine it couldn't be more than a $50 cut in Spring though. $100 coupled with the bundling of Natal in one year alone would be insane.

Would bundling Natal at no extra cost really be seen as a price cut by the general public. It would add value to the console (assuming there is even a single function Natal can be used for, which there will obviously be), but will the general public see it that way? They could still see $299 Elite vs $299 PS3 and go for the PS3 (or $249 Elite vs $249-$299 PS3, whatever happens by then). In that case, MS would just run out of steam after the early price-cut, handing the big holiday push the Sony again.

This I will agree with.

As far as your comment about sony cutting price, the only thing I can see happening is a 349$ wand bundle, rather than what it should actually cost, 50 per wand and 50 for camera.

Thing about the 360 is Microsoft will be releasing Natal for it, and look for that to be a game changer. Plus, it is set to spend major money promoting its exclusives. I would look for Natal bundle with the 360 as the push, rather than just a price cut.

oh i think he's on to something, nail on the head.

I do think Microsoft's will come sooner rather than later, especially if they can't overtake PS3 after the dust clears from this holiday. Sony's i think could come by next holiday season, or early 2011.

Nintendo i don't think is going to budge until they push out their next system in holidays 2011. Not unless something catastrophic happens.