THQ anticipating PS3 price cut this year
CEO tells investors that a cut is not expected at E3, but should come later this year
In a conference call outlining its financial results for 2009, THQ CEO Brian Farrell discussed the publisher's viewpoint on recent hardware trends, saying that he is pleased with Microsoft's price point, seeing some "softness" on Wii sales, and is expecting a price cut this year on Sony's PlayStation 3.
"We're pleased with Microsoft's momentum at their price point," said Farrell. Microsoft's Xbox 360 console showed growth in March of this year versus 2008, the only console to do so. The Wii, while still the highest selling platform in the US, showed a drop in March.
"We are seeing a little softness in the Wii, which we kind of think of as the glass is half full here, in that the Wii has been going for an unprecedented amount of time without a price reduction," said Farrell. "So we may just be seeing both economic [factors] and the fact that they've already got a pretty substantial install base at their original price point."
"The challenging platform obviously is the PS3," he said. "The right people to ask about price cuts there are Sony. We are not expecting a price cut at E3, but we do expect one later in the year."
"But again that's just our guess, that's not based on any knowledge from Sony," Farrell added.
When asked if THQ is concerned with recent hardware trends, Farrell denied this, saying "No, actually the year is very much playing out as we suspected so far. So the answer to the question is no."