Pachter declares PS3 price cut by October 1

not_this_shit_again1I hate to do it, but I have to. Sorry, kids.

Ahead of the June NPD numbers that will be released on Thursday, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter stated today that US sales of the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 have declined 43 percent from June of last year to June 2009. He predicts that Nintendo moved 350,000 Wiis while Sony sold 165,000 PS3s and Microsoft came up shy of a quarter million with 225,000.

Pachter declared that both Sony and Nintendo would discount their respective consoles by $50 if hardware sales continue to decline.

“We think that the console manufacturers will therefore be forced to consider a price cut before year-end, with Sony cutting the PS3’s price by October 1,” he said.

“Further, we do not think that Nintendo’s hardware forecast figures are achievable without a price cut, and we expect one around the same time as the PS3 price cut.

“It is likely both manufacturers will cut by $50, with Sony making up any lack of increased demand with a software bundle.

“We expect Microsoft to follow suit, giving us confidence that US software sales will grow later in the year, notwithstanding negative sales in the early part of the year.”

via VG247