Pachter: 360 price cut "shouldn't do much for sales"

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has agreed with EEDAR's Jesse Divnich's comments yesterday on this week's 360 price cut not being a significant sales driver, saying that "a substitution of hard drives and box color at the same price point shouldn't do much for sales".

Pachter, however, has disagreed with Divnich on the matter of the 360 Elite coming down further to $249 from the new price of $299 within a year, predicting the machine will stay where it is unless sales start slipping.

"Microsoft is happy with its level of sales, and unless it sees sales down significantly year-over-year, they will probably stay at the $299 price point," Pachter told VG247.

"It's hard to say how much of a boost Sony gets (I think 50-60%), and whether this comes from overall increases in console sales or from taking share from the other guys. If Sony's sales go up 100%, and Microsoft's go down 20% or more, we may see a $50 price cut on the 360. That's a lot of ifs.

"The only way I see 360 sales suffering is if Sony does a great job of advertising, and if Nintendo also cuts price.

"Since it's too early to call either, I'd venture a guess that Microsoft will stay put at $299."