A 200USD price cut! That's a lot, but I think PS3 sales would sharply increase because of it. A $200 price cut would make the 60GB Playstation 3 $80 cheaper than the Xbox 360 Elite. Of course, Microsoft may also have another price cut as well. Still, Sony has yet to make a decision.

Bank of America’s Michael L. Savner has said in a statement that Sony would have to take some extreme steps to recover from the mess they have created with Playstation 3 for themselves.

He said that the company would gain little even if they introduce a $100 price cut this Summer or Autumn.

He said in a statement to Gamedaily: “Despite growing anticipation that a $100 price cut for the PS3 is imminent this summer or early fall, we do not believe such a move would meaningfully improve stagnant PS3 sales and we are growing more concerned that a share shift away from Sony and Microsoft to Nintendo’s Wii platform is incrementally negative of all 3rd-party publishers.”

Savner further said: “Based on our analysis, we conclude that a $100 price cut for the PS3 would still leave the ‘all-in’ cost for a PS3 console and basic accouterments 20-25% higher than the comparable Xbox 360, and does not even reflect the possibility that Microsoft could also lower its hardware prices. Further, an important driver of Sony hardware last cycle was exclusive games, such as Grand Theft Auto. Unfortunately, Sony does not have a similar advantage this cycle. Halo 3, a highly anticipated game release this year is a Microsoft-published game only for the Xbox, and Grand Theft Auto IV, by Take-Two’s Rockstar unit, is being released on both the Sony and Xbox platforms.”

eventually, he suggests that Sony would have to cut the cost of the console by at least USD 200. But the possibilities of such a cut are minimal considering the company is already making huge losses on each console sold in the market.

Savner added: “Offsetting a potential price cut are decreasing production costs, which should improve significantly this year. We estimate that the loss per console could decline to about $50, assuming Sony does not cut its wholesale prices. Bottom line, we don’t expect Sony to make up meaningful ground against the Wii this year.”

Supernouva via games.techwhack.com »