Pachter: 360 US sales to decline for holiday period without price cut

Without a price-cut heading into the holiday period, hardware sales for Xbox 360 in the US will decline, Michael Pachter has said.

In a note published yesterday, the Wedbush Morgan analyst said it could be after Christmas that a price-cut comes into play from Redmond, adding that MS could instead reduce the price on Kinect hardware bundles.

"Without a price cut for the Xbox 360, overall hardware sales should trend down in November and December," he said (via IG). "While we may see a reduction in the price of Xbox 360/Kinect bundles before holiday, we expect Microsoft to wait until after the holidays or until sales decline dramatically before considering a price cut on the standalone console."

With no price-cut for 360 until the new year at the very latest, it's an opportunity for PS3 to help close the gap thanks to the reduction introduced at gamescom in August.

"PS3 hardware sales should continue to be strong due to the $50 price cut and an improving release slate over the remainder of the year."