PS3 price cut announcement "in the next couple of days" - Janco
Analyst speculates official price cut to come as early as April
The PlayStation 3 could be about to receive a price cut, with Sony due to make an announcement imminently.
That's according to Janco Partners' Mike Hickey, who has said in his latest note to investors that Sony needs to cut USD 100 off the asking price of the luxury console.
"Recent channel checks indicate increased speculation for a PS3 price cut announcement from Sony in the next couple of days," wrote Hickey.
"We think the company needs to reduce the current price by USD 100 to effectively restart unit velocity at retail. We believe the market is expecting a PS3 price cut in April or by June at the latest," he added.
Hickey said that without a price cut, the console could stagnate on shelves, prompting publishers to move resources away from PlayStation 3 development.
"If Sony does not cut the price of their console, we expect the continuation of languishing PS3 hardware sales and the potential for publishers to accelerate their reallocation of resources away from the PS3 console."
He also said that there is talk of a PlayStation 3 unit without the Blu-ray drive, although such a console would not be compatible with the PS3 software already on the market.
"We are also hearing continued speculation that Sony is working on a non-Blu-ray PS3 console, which could enable them to make the aforementioned hardware price reduction."