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According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, as reported by VG247, consumers can expect an Xbox 360 Slim SKU to hit retail for the Holiday season that’s bundled with Natal, features a 250 GB HDD, and retails for $299. It is also likely, assuming Microsoft continues to lose market share to Sony, that a price cut will be implemented across the Xbox 360 line in order to heighten the sense of value amongst potential console buyers. This will certainly occur if Sony is able to implement a price drop of their own; something Pachter expects to see around September. Here’s what Pachter was quoted as saying by VG247:
“We expect another price cut for both systems sometime this year (most likely around September), but note that because its manufacturing costs are lower, Microsoft has the ability to lower price earlier.” “At a minimum, we anticipate the introduction of a more feature-packed Xbox 360 as the standard SKU in late 2010 (likely with a 250GB hard drive) at the same $299 price point, and think that Microsoft will cut price before the fall only if it begins to lose significant market share to Sony.” “It is far more likely that we will see a slim version of the Xbox 360 with a 250 GB hard drive and with Project Natal bundled into the box while maintaining the $299 price point, especially if Sony does not lower the price of the PS3 by the time Natal and Sony’s Move controllers launch in the fall.” |
