Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter thinks that we’ll be seeing a PlayStation 3 price drop in the near future.
In fact, he thought it would happen by February 21st, the day after the PlayStation 4 reveal, but that turned out not to be so. Still, he’s confident in saying that he thinks the PS3 will drop to $199 in the next week or so.
That price drop represents a pretty substantial cut of about $50, and will make it cheaper than a comparably-equipped Xbox 360 console which still runs for nearly $300.
We’re not sure the price drop will happen so soon. As we get closer to E3, we’ll probably see a drop to $229 or so, but $199 seems like a lofty price goal if the console is still selling as well as it is. With games like The Last of Us and God of War: Ascension about to launch, people who don’t have a PlayStation 3 have even more reason to get one, so a price drop might be unnecessary.
Sony also knows that their console is still the only one that supports Blu-Ray, and it is still being picked up as a Blu-Ray player for many homes. That alone puts the hardware slightly about the Xbox 360 at this time, even though the PlayStation 3 is currently cheaper (again, for a similarly-equipped unit. Xbox 360s with 4GB of storage need not apply).
We’ll see what happens in the coming days. If we do get a price announcement, it’ll be around mid-week by our estimation, as that’s how these things usually go, so expect to hear more in a few days, if we do indeed get news.