$300 360 Slim with Natal and 250Gb HDD on the way, says Pachter

Michael Pachter's predicted we will see a $300 bundle from Microsoft that will have a Xbox 360 Slim, with a 250Gb HDD and Natal packed in with it.

Speaking in a note ahead of this week's NPD release, the Wedbush analyst that the move will only happen if Sony doesn't give PlayStation 3 another price cut by the time its own motion controller PlayStation Move launches.

"We expect another price cut for both systems some time this year (most likely around September), but note that because its
manufacturing costs are lower, Microsoft has the ability to lower price earlier," he said.

"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."

Rumours of a hardware SKU with Natal built-in have been mentioned before. Recently, rumours of a 360 Slim have been circulating recently, although they've both turned to s**t.

The NPD results for the month of March releases on Thursday night.