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Pachter: $299 PS3 due in April, $249 360 in June

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Jan 12, 2009 4:52 pm PT

Wedbush Morgan's game-industry wise man forecasts tit-for-tat price cuts from Sony, Microsoft in weeks leading up to E3; $2.62 billion in December software sales forecast.

Shortly after EEDAR's Jesse Divinch weighed in with his forecast of NPD Group's December game sales--expected this Thursday--another game-industry wise man stepped up to the plate. Wedbush Morgan's oft-quoted Michael Pachter nearly concurs with his peer, predicting that more than 3.25 million Wiis were sold domestically during the month, followed by 1.35 million Xbox 360s and 750,000 PlayStation 3s.

Software-wise, Pachter thinks that December saw a 10 percent rise in monthly US software sales, from $2.39 billion in 2007 to $2.63 billion in 2009. He believes the top games of the month were (in no particular order) Guitar Hero World Tour, Call of Duty: World at War, Gears of War 2, Rock Band 2, Wii Fit, and Prince of Persia. Though the NPD numbers cover only console games, he also doffed his hat to the wildly popular PC expansion pack World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

By the analyst's estimate, $2.42 billion of US game software sales were for the PS3, Wii, 360, PSP and DS, with the remaining $205 million coming from games for legacy systems. He thinks that PlayStation 2 game sales will continue to fall by roughly half each month, having slid 51 percent year-on-year in November and an estimated 54 percent year-on-year in December.

Although his comments on the PlayStation 2 were noteworthy, it's Pachter's predictions for the PlayStation 3 that will likely pique gamers' interest. The financial veteran believes that, after being relegated to third place in the console race by the 360's $199 price drop in September, the 80GB PS3 base model will be cut from $399 to $299 in April.

He also believes that, wishing to maintain momentum, Microsoft will follow suit, knocking $50 off of its 60GB 360 Pro model around the time of the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, which runs from June 2-4. Pachter expects no price cut for the Wii until the holiday season--if there is one at all--due to still-record-high demand for the console.

341 Comments

  • geedotherodian

    Posted Jan 29, 2009 4:03 pm PT

    what about price cut for psp it is outselling the ps3 and i think resistance retribution and some new sony support will boost its popularity this year

  • zacattack214

    Posted Jan 21, 2009 7:28 pm PT

    Well I guess we will not know until April if he is right. I for one think it would be good for Sony. Even though the are already selling PS3's at a loss, I assume (I'm no master of economics) they will still be able to make a larger profits by selling more consoles because it will in turn lead to more game sales and PSN customers. They have a healthy list of exclusives coming their way. And with a price tag of $299, there is no reason not to buy a PS3. I know I will ... if it drops that is

  • Compilation

    Posted Jan 20, 2009 11:32 am PT

    Microsoft's volume of sales is better than the PS3. Quote, 'Maintain momentum'. Okay so they work diligently, but why act full of disdain and disparagement? Decreasing the 360 consoles sales price for example, that won’t prove a great difference. Microsoft and Xbox are doing considerably well in this moment in time, but still they stick their noses into Sony’s epic loss. In all due respect I feel it was them mainly who plagiarized Sony and Nintendo's initial ideations. They literally leech off of successive ideations and what not nowadays. Playstation has been bullied so much in recent years, hardly anyone favors it anymore. But then again I suppose no one would with all battered scars and bruises. Hardly an attractive person in analogical sense? If they do decrease the PS3’s price cost, then pat-on-the-back. You have to realise the PS3 is equipped with so much booty it’s understandable it costs so much, but product volume is terrible in competitive relations. There’s no need to blabber on. I’ve made my point.

    Back on topic. Those stipulated prices are dreamy wishes and probably won’t even fall in price for some time yet. For the love of a grilled cheese sandwich, where the hell has this bloke been in the past year or so? It’s nice to know he seems passionate about by analytically given us predictions on console price change, but who hasn’t recently?

  • ajac

    Posted Jan 19, 2009 9:28 pm PT

    I can see a 299 ps3. They need to make money and to sell games they need thier system to be affordable. The economy so hurt right now ps3 is gonna die if they dont do something. A 249 360 I cant see right now. One thing microsoft needs to do is drop the price of its hard drives I mean come on 60 gig for 99 bucks? 179 for a 120 gig? All 360 hard drives are sata 2.5 inch drives. If I could get away with putting a store bought one in thier like on the ps3 id be game but they love to ban on xbox live. Also xbox live should be free as well.

  • usmaan7000

    Posted Jan 19, 2009 4:47 pm PT

    imagine how low the price would be on Black Friday........

  • tehpurplepills

    Posted Jan 19, 2009 8:58 am PT

    no offense zintar but are you a professional?
    cuz this guy is...

  • grlew

    Posted Jan 19, 2009 6:53 am PT

    This has been said before and I may as well say it again PS3 has a Blu-Ray player so why the hell would they cut the price, if you bought it as just a Blu-Ray player its pretty cheap, you add into that a great game system too, it is well worth the price. If Sony cuts the PS3 price it will also have to cut the price on its Blu-Ray players. As far as this who has the best exclusives thing again this year I honestly can't see that Xbox particularly has anything unless you are really into FPS I do enjoy a good FPS now and again but personally I much prefer action adventure there are boat loads of quality FPS's on both systems I don't see the big deal. Take Bioschock got it christmas time liked it alot but I just don't think it stands up in comparison to something like Dead Space, maybey its just me. Anyway what I'm saying is PS3 is going to have alot more diversity in its batch of exclusives this year than the 360

  • zintarr

    Posted Jan 18, 2009 8:36 am PT

    WOW...more predictions from a "professional" analyst. Seems to me the only reason Sony would drop the price anymore is if they want a repeat of the $1-Billion loss they posted for this year all over again. Sure, Sony is about to break even on the cost to make and sell the PS3 but it will be years before they begin to recover from the initial carnage.

    This Pachter is a moron and seems to be the type of investment guru that was BLIND to the impending implosion of the US economy. Thats ok though Mr Pachter...keep up the good work and lead those that listen to you into bankruptcy.

  • rockutd

    Posted Jan 17, 2009 8:40 pm PT

    That is insane.How bout $150 PS3 in 2011 and $99 360???

  • akirakorn

    Posted Jan 17, 2009 2:28 pm PT

    @superchink Xbox has overpriced acessories?? I still keep my PS2 around and had to get new controllers (don't ask) they still cost $25-$30 as does an 8MB memory chip

    come on, it's been over 8 years, can i at least backup some games for less than the cost of a new game?

    @morons who expect a $199 PS3, last time i check (yr ago mind you) a new PS2 was $125... again 8 years still 40% the price compared to launch ($299 if not mistaken), so you want a PS3 at less than 30% of the cost at launch, just 3 years later?

    @nearly the entire gaming community
    screw you and your 'exclusive titles' BS, most of us can only afford one, and i missed out on the original Xbox. I am extactic most of the 'top tier' games are multi platform, now more people can enjoy more quality games, was PS/PS2 fanboy, only reason i got xbox jones cause PS3 didn't come out, would've swapped back but xbox games were fun, made friends on live and FFXIII and Gran Turismo were nowhere in sight

    2 1/2 years later still no FFXIII or Tursimo in sight...

  • Mini-15

    Posted Jan 17, 2009 1:00 pm PT

    What the heck are you talking about bkn!gg@ . You said the PS3 has "fewww exclusives." Are you crazy, i could name the same number of exclusives the for both consoles. Also, if you look at the games coming out in 09, the PS3 has a lot of exclusies coming out. Killzone, InFamous, God of War, Heavy Rain, MAG, and a lot more.

  • eayoshi

    Posted Jan 17, 2009 12:09 pm PT

    What is this guy talking about? I already got a $130 Xbox Arcade w/ free DDR and a $230 Xbox Pro from Amazon this past Christmas!

  • rmoorevtps3

    Posted Jan 17, 2009 10:01 am PT

    the PS3's price won't be cut. They're still selling it a loss 2 years after its release you think now they're going to cut the price a 100 dollars so they go back to losing a 100 bucks a console just as they start to make money on consoles sold? If people were smart they would be buying a console that costs more to make than the company is selling it for, it truly shows its value in the hardware. Anyways, this "analyst" is an idiot and his story shouldn't be on Gamespot. This article is garbage.

  • amulbocus

    Posted Jan 17, 2009 5:29 am PT

    God of war 3 has 4 TIMES THE GRAPHICAL RESOLUTION as that of gears 2, this is where ps3 moves away from the preceding pack lol. Oh and forgot Killzone 2 hahahha.

  • rockutd

    Posted Jan 17, 2009 2:08 am PT

    this is good news for late porters.

  • spiritbreaker22

    Posted Jan 16, 2009 8:00 pm PT

    So if I wait for my PS3 until April and the price doesn't drop will he send me a $100 cheque?

  • ahpuck

    Posted Jan 16, 2009 4:45 pm PT

    such long and pointless comments for an unconfirmed rumor? get a job!

  • odoyle420

    Posted Jan 16, 2009 3:03 pm PT

    I really hope this is true but it just seems unlikely since sony is close to making a profit.

  • Kleeyook

    Posted Jan 16, 2009 2:53 pm PT

    299$!?
    I guess I should wait a bit more.

  • Masa_Cheez

    Posted Jan 16, 2009 12:26 pm PT

    I apologize for the weird characters in my last post. They were mostly comma's and quotation marks that for some reason went goofy.

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