No, this isn't another one of Michael Pachter's inane predictions. This time these predictions are coming from a mole over at Ars Technica. Before you arbitrarily dismiss Nostradamus' predictions here, this person's been known to have been correct about the 360 price cut last year, the Resident Evil 5 360 bundle, and the PSP Go. He states that Sony will reveal a price cut for the PS3 simultaneously with the announcement of the PS3 Slim. As for Microsoft, he says that they will phase out the Pro system and concentrate more on the Elite through bundles and a price cut. He didn't provide any figures for the price cuts, other than that they would certainly be done by the holiday season.

For those who willingly believe this, make sure you take this information with a grain of salt. For the skeptics, at the very least, it's an entertaining read.

Our favorite inside source has given us a heads-up on what to expect from both Sony and Microsoft this year in hardware packages and pricing. The path to the holidays is a rosy one, with more hard drive space inside the systems at a lower price. Here's what we can expect.

Since we can't name the source, we're treating all this information as rumor, but the Mole's reputation in the industry for breaking large stories, a long history of being first out of the gate with big announcements, and an outstanding track record for accuracy speak for themselves.

Sony and the PS3

The 80GB model is going to see some serious hardware constraints in the weeks ahead, and retailers have about 60 days worth of inventory before the systems will become hard to find. Expect to see many more 160GB units on store shelves. Those units have no constraints yet, but if the retailers sell through that supply as quickly as they did the 80GB, Sony is in a good place for the final part of its plan in 2009: dropping the price of hardware and launching the PS3 Slim in the fall.

McClubbin via arstechnica.com »