Pachter expects 360 price cut at E3, PS3 and Wii to follow suit

by Griffin McElroy on Mar 7th 2011 9:00PM

Gaming industry analyst Michael Pachter has updated his predictions about the console price cuts he anticipates will occur this year. A Wedbush Securities update distributed this morning said, "We expect Microsoft to announce a price cut at this year's E3 Expo in June, and expect Sony and Nintendo to rapidly follow suit." Until then, Pachter expects that consoles sales will steadily decline, with the 3DS providing enough juice to bring things back into the positives in April.

The report predicts that Microsoft will likely capitalize on the success of Kinect by dropping the price of its core Xbox 360 bundle to "under $300," adding "we are confident that by holiday 2011, all three consoles will be at least $50 cheaper than they are today." Why, with that kind of money, we could almost buy a new fuel cell for our spaceyacht's hyperdrive!

Oh, right -- the report also predicts the invention of spaceyachts. We meant to mention that earlier.

Tags: e3-2011, michael-pachter, microsoft, nintendo, pachter, playstation, price-cut, ps3, sony, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (105)

These are the only times I actually like Patcher. Usually when he mentions something, companies do take it into consideration

@Prboi
really? i didn't think anyone really listened to him. Anyway, how is this news, joystiq? you do so well, but i don't care about some guy's prediction especially when he is usually wrong or predicts something that a 9 year old could.

@sserschens

Yeah...everyone hates him.

No one cares what he says, and when he "predicts" something right, it is because, as you said, it is so plainly obvious.

"Pachter predicts new Call of Duty game will sell more than indie game no one has ever heard of."

@sserschens

Well if he mentions something that nobody thought of, then it could come true. Patcher predicted that COD would have a subscription plan & now look at Project beachhead Kotick announced. Even though it's not set in stone, we all know how he is.

@Prboi is he really making sense and not saying the obvious this time?

@Vman

I know he always states the obvious but there are times where he does say things that people listen to. He did predict the project 10 dollar that companies are looking into. If he hadn't said that, it probably would have been a ways off from happening

@Prboi

Activision has been talking about extending the reach of the "subscription plan" since they acquired Blizzard. Patcher predicted nothing, just openly speculated about something already well discussed.

This is the first thing I have heard from him in awhile.

When he was making his last prediction, and he was wrong, he pitched a fit, and insulted the company for it.

I think we should just ignore the asshole. He's wrong 99.9% of the time, and when he's right, it's something that's already happened or is so damn obvious anyone could have guessed it. "Nintendo will make millions", no shit?

@Prboi
Like it's so hard to predict a price cut is coming. PS3 has been bundled with $50 and $100 gift cards since November. It currently comes with a $50 gift card in many stores, and also bundled with a $60 new release game.

@sserschens
You know what the worst thing is, that he makes money out of IT, and he gets the attention he wants.

@eNriqeu.

I still don't get the hate about Michael Pachter.

You do realize his full-time profession is predicting what companies will do right? You do realize he's obviously VERY good at what he does and gets paid thousands of dollars to do this right?

You do realize that he is going to be a MUCH better analyst then you are right now, and no, he doesn't state the obvious, it's just that news media tends to pick out the easy stuff because it's the easiest to interpret.

@The Harbinger of Pie Regardless of his accuracy, Pachter is actually just a really nice guy. He's very humble about his predictions, and readily admits he's just a business guy who really likes video games.

It saddens me when people hate on him.

Everyone wins.

Good.

Well I've certainly felt tempted to buy a 360 at times. It's more an issue of having enough time to play those games than an issue of price however.

@Pure Black World Tendency

same here. I want to play gears 2, gears 3, alan wake, and limbo like nobody's business but man I already play enough games. Maybe when the next generation of consoles comes out I might just get a 360 and play those games for a year and half or so. while the new systems get their kinks ironed out.

@eat it

Add Deadly Premonition, Super Meat Boy, Trials HD, Shadow Complex and Lost Odyssey to those titles you mentioned and you have my list.

@Pure Black World Tendency

i feel the same way about getting a PS3. i wouldn't mind spending the money, but as it is, it would kinda be a waste since i would hardly have time to use it. i don't even get to play all the stuff i want for 360.

@maveric101

We're crossing that line where there are just too many games to play. It's like movies, no one can watch every movie that comes out. imagine 25 years from now there will probably like 30 or 40 ridiculously awesome games a year, we'll all end up ignoring tons of great games

@Pure Black World Tendency Deadly Preminition is worth the price of admission. Best exclusive I've played in a long time. There isnt a weirder game this gen.

Hmm.

A Wii for $149, you say? That's mighty tempting!

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
Coming from the hypocrite that probably bought the PS3 at launch. Wii is a steal at $200 as well. Based on first party titles alone, it has a few of the best games this generation.

@jblank

Well, I don't know about that, but I'd at least like to play through Galaxy 1 and 2, both Zelda games, and DKCR. :)

@jblank

You because you don't think there are games on there that are good, doesn't make you right. Epic Mickey, Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Brothers Wii, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Mario Sports Mix, Tatsunoko vs Capcom, No More Heroes & many many more only on the Wii. Don't say the Wii has no good games because of you don't have good taste in games.

@AngryTurds

How is he a hypocrite if he buy's one early at a high price and another later at a low price?

Some people just have these things called "opinions". It doesn't make them a fanboy or a hypocrite. Maybe he had more money then, maybe he is getting this as his 3rd console, maybe he just isn't into Nintendo games as much as other people are, or maybe he's getting it as a gift. There's a million logical reasons why he would jump at this now.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
AngryTurds - Steal at $200
jblank - $99 at best

($200+$99)/2=$149.5~$149

Based on the comments, $149 sounds good.

@AngryTurds

Why yes, I 'did' buy a PS3 at launch.

But here's a fun 'Ezio' fact for you:

I didn't like it. I sold it two weeks later and bought a 360, which I happily owned for a couple years until I bought another PS3 that I fell in love with. :)

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Consoles at launch are always a drag

@Prboi
Please remove Epic Mickey & Mario Sports Mix from your list. I'll allow some of the okay titles but those two are a no, no.

@jblank - Why are you so upvoted right now? Beyond the fact that what you're saying is a played-out trope by now, the idea that "shovelware dilutes the good content" is specious at best. Do bad movies being released dilute the good movies that come out? No? That's right, they don't. And that idea about "shovelware" is only an idea that gets propagated on ludicrous gaming forum places.

Beyond the fact that there are PLENTY of Wii games that can keep you occupied, you can play VC games too! Come on now!

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

I'll be sure to add that fact to the wiki ;)

@AngryTurds
Hypocrite? Uh...wtf? It's not like everybody has money to buy multiple consoles at once. It has nothing to do with opinion. At least it didn't for me when I finally bought a PS2 back in December.

@Prboi said: "Consoles at launch are always a drag"

Mmm... not quite my experience. I'm especially happy with my good old launch PS3 and its backwards compatibility. Never have regretted the investment, myself.

I think the PS3 is due for a cut not sure about 360 though...

@Voltron Dude, it will be 6 years old in November, do you really think a 6 year old console, should still cost $300? Come on back to reality.

@Voltron

I would think the opposite, I mean they're essentially the same but at least the PS3 can say it's a blu-ray player. surely that's worth $50 more? I guess you get 250 gigs in an xbox as opposed to 160.

$200 is the point I think I'm holding out for until I get a 360 maybe fall 2012

@eat it

It will probably be lowered to 250 but with a smaller harddrive.

@(Unverified)

Pachter?

...

Is that you?

This just in: Pachter predicts a price cut sometime in 2011 or 2012 for some system at some point.

@Magnalon He must be a descendant of Nostradamus.

@Magnalon

... But not the PSP GO which will actually increase in price

@Shinta

His secret name is Pachtrodamus.

Price cuts are LONG overdue in my opinion. For the PS3 and 360 to be entering their 5th and 6th years respectively in 2011, for them to cost what they still cost is absurd. The PS3 120GB should be $199 and the 250GB 360 with Kinect should be $199 or $229 TOPS.

@jblank

yeah it is a bit much when you think about it like that. the PS2 was like $130-150 after 5 or 6 years years, It didn't have a HDD but is that really what's keeping the price up?

@jblank Well, they're bundling consoles with games/peripherals now as a way of keeping the price up. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall bundles being this numerous. There's a new bundle with nearly every release that's close to "major" at this point.

@PointlessPuppies

true but at the same time the 250gb xbox and 160gb PS3 are $300 without any games or extras. There are still someplaces where you can get bundles but those games are normally a few months old and might only save 20 bucks. or if they are new they raise the price of the bundle to $400

@eat it

The funny thing about the PS3 is that it's the only console that's received price cuts and FEATURE cuts.

The 360 gets cheaper and adds storage.

The PS3 gets cheaper by adding storage and taking things away.

I can't recall any other time where a console launch unit had better specs than the later units.

@jblank

250 GB 360 will never be below 200 bucks. With Kinect, it will be most likely be $300 & the regular 250 GB would be $250. They'll most likey add another version like a 120 GB for $200 & then mark down the 4GB one to $150. I think that would be best for MS. Sony always cuts the prices but then adds another layer to their lineup. So each price would just stay the same essentially.

@arkweld

You know in hindsight, I kind of like that they did that. I got the console I wanted and some people got the console that they wanted. I was able to catch up on some ps2 games like SotC and god of war 2 upscaled in widescreen. If they did it again for the ps4 I'd probably get one early on.

I think something needs to be said for all of the other features like netflix, hulu, vudu, mlb, nhl, last fm.... I think a lot of us take that for granted. I know these consoles are still pricey compared to previous 6 year old consoles but they have also replaced other devices. I don't have cable anymore because I can stream so many shows and movies and sports through them. I don't even own a dvd player or bluray player

@arkweld

Outside of PS2 backwards compatibility I don't think any of the other cut pieces were really that important. They removed 2 USB slots and got rid of the memory card slots right? Is there anything else they cut (besides BC, of course)?

Now consider it launched at $600 and, outside of playing PS2 games, you're kind of getting more now at a cheaper price than you were then. Even if you buy all the components separately (a PS3, a PS2, a USB hub, etc.) you'd probably still spend less now than for a launch console and you'd end up getting more (bigger HDD, etc.).

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Pachter expects 360 price cut at E3, PS3 and Wii to follow suit

Reader Comments (105)

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:04PM Prboi said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:17PM sserschens said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:22PM The Harbinger of Pie said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:25PM Prboi said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:34PM Vman said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:40PM Prboi said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:50PM Anticrawl said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:19PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:28PM mywhitenoise said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:48PM eNriqeu said

Posted: Mar 8th 2011 1:56AM PhilipJWitow said

Posted: Mar 8th 2011 11:24AM Akrid said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:07PM Manifest37 said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:09PM MGTrey said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:11PM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:24PM eat it said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:55PM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:14PM maveric101 said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:50PM eat it said

Posted: Mar 8th 2011 12:44AM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:11PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:23PM AngryTurds said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:32PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:33PM Prboi said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:34PM sonicspike41 said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:37PM neonlights326 said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:40PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:58PM Prboi said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:02PM Manifest37 said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:08PM MatthewBlackwell said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:29PM Zacxx201 said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:49PM The Only Girl said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 11:38PM ComicShaman said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:22PM Voltron said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:28PM jblank said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:30PM eat it said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:37PM Prboi said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:24PM Heffer Wolfe said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:26PM Magnalon said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:32PM Shinta said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:33PM oOWallaceOo said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:39PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:26PM jblank said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:38PM eat it said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:48PM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 9:58PM eat it said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:13PM arkweld said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:37PM Prboi said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:44PM eat it said

Posted: Mar 7th 2011 10:58PM sonicspike41 said

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