Xboxist

Pachter Sees 2009 Price Cut for Microsoft

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has a gift for predicting the direction of video game stocks. He is so gifted in fact that his predictions come true about 50 percent of the time. He has issued a new statement in advance of the big NPD results which are due later this week. Pachter now says that he expects a price cut to the PS3 this April, with the device reduced to $299. He then expects that Microsoft will follow suit with even deeper price reductions to its own Xbox 360 console, also in the spring.

"Once the PS3 is at a more affordable price point (we expect a cut to $299 in April), we think that sales of that device will once again begin to grow. We expect another cut in price for the Xbox 360, with the feature-laden Pro model likely to come down in price to $249 at or before this year's E3 show in June. We expect Nintendo to maintain Wii pricing at $249 until the company sees signs that demand is slowing, which means a price cut may not happen until late in the year, if at all," Pachter said in his report.

We think that this particular prediction has a good chance of coming true. With the North American economy struggling and with the cost of production rapidly declining, a price cut in 2009 is almost a no brainer. If we wanted to try being superstar analysts for a moment, we might even go out on a limb and predict that price cuts will come even earlier than Pachter thinks, in March. See? It’s not so hard.

[Source: Game Daily]