Pachter: PS3 and 360 hardware to get price cuts this summer

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter's predicted that both 360 and PS3 will get further price cuts this year.

The analyst said in a note (thanks, Joystiq) that he expected "another price cut for both systems some time this year (around summer)," noting that "because its manufacturing costs are lower, Microsoft has the ability to lower price as early as March or April."

Pachter added that he thinks MS could introduce "a more feature-packed Xbox 360 in early 2010 (likely with a 250GB hard drive) at the same $299 price point" but only "if it begins to lose significant market share to Sony".

Microsoft last made significant cuts to 360 pricing in September 2008, dropping in the US, Europe and Japan.

In that round of cuts, the Arcade dropped £129 (€179), 60Gb Pros to £169 (€239) and Elites to £229 (€299), reduced from £159 (€199), £199 (€269) and £259 (€369).

The American Elite was pulled down to $399 at that point, the average SKU to $299 and the Arcade to $199.

The cut before that, interestingly, was in March 2008.

Sony famously waited until gamescom last August to announce its first proper PS3 price cut, bringing the console down to €299 in Europe, $299 in the US and 29,980 yen in Japan.