PlayStation 3 And Xbox 360 Price Cuts? Yes And No

At least for the time being, as in the first part of this year, the answer to the question in the title is a definite "no". So the real question is, when will the two next-gen consoles become cheaper? For the Xbox 360, it would be normal to finally see a price cut during 2007, since Microsoft's console has been on the market for over a year now, and by the end of 2006 they had shipped over 10 million units worldwide.

Rumours about a cheaper Xbox 360 were also flying high last year, although Microsoft never really committed to cutting the price in the near future. Unfortunately, that's also the case nowdays, so the only ones who dare predict a price cut are the industry analysts (and various less-versed individuals). But anyway, if you're waiting for a significant reduction, you'd better have plenty of patience and/or tobacco, because a cheaper Xbox 360 is more likely to come along in the second half of this year.

Ironically enough, even though Sony launched their console a year later, the price of the PlayStation 3 was reduced in Japan even before the launch, with around 20%. And they have already begun talking about a new price cut for the PS3, in a (desperate) attempt to stop their gaming division's massive losses, and to gain a larger market share.

In a report issued today by the Associated Press, Takao Yuhara (Sony senior vice-president) is quoted as saying: "We may look at the price as part of our strategy to expand the market when the timing is right". The right time for a price cut would be the release of a phenomenal PlayStation 3 game, but I'll be damned if I can think of any such title planned in the near future. Maybe in autumn...

Another factor that could bring us a cheaper (and cooler) PS3 is the replacement of the current 90nm Cell processors with newer, cheaper ones. As PSU informs us, Sony have just begun the production of 65nm Cell processors. Even if these won't be integrated in the first batch of PS3 units that will be launched in Europe on March 23, the change should become apparent later on this year. In any case, the analysts say that the console might get a price cut of over 150 Euro in a year, thus bringing the 60GB model down below the 450 Euro price point. Now we're talking...

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)