Analyst Predicts Further Console Price Cuts

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Reuters/Yahoo story discussing software sales growth and possible console hardware price cuts for the US. Tony Gikas, a gaming sector financial analyst, saw strong short-term sales prospects for companies such as EA, Activision, and Take Two, and "said he expected software sales growth for the industry of 12 percent each in 2003 and 2004." Interestingly, Gikas is also quoted as saying "(The recent) hardware price cut to $179 is working and (there will be) more to follow before year-end." How low can prices go before a new generation of console hardware kicks in?

What Nintendo SHOULD do

[KU_Fletch]

I hope Nintendo doesn't do a price cut, but instead creates a super bundle. Put the Gamecube, GBA SP, and a game for each. Keep the $150 price level. Parents will love it because they see it as getting two consoles for the price of one, kids will love getting more, adult gamers (myself included) will enjoy the linkable features that are upcoming. Plus, they could have theme packs. The Zelda, Metroid, and Mario also have big name games on both consoles (with Zelda and Metroid having link capacity). Hell, there could even be an Animal Crossing bundle with Animal Crossing and an e-Reader instead of a GBA-SP game since you can download NES games instead.

What if they introduce networking in a big way?

[Ayanami Rei]

Then cheap, individual consoles are going to be important to get. They should come with game discs that let you play GBA-SP or go webtv/networked mode with a broadband adapter and let you remotely boot net-aware games, like an arcade setup.

That would kick ass. Of course, they might not like the idea of only having to have one copy of the game for 4 people to play over a LAN (you'll probably need it for net play, however)
In fact, that sounds like a good compromise! $150 for a "LAN party pack", GC, controller, Net/GBA rom, broadband adapter.

How low can prices go?

[Matrix272]

How low can prices go before a new generation of console hardware kicks in?

Pretty low. Remember the NES and SNES? Or even the SNES and N64? What about the N64 and the GameCube? (This is from memory, so mistakes can and probably will be made.) AFAIK, they ALL dropped to around $100 before the next generation came out. Here's my prediction: we should expect another relatively minor cut in the next few months (probably before November) to around $149 for the PS2 and XBox. Then, right at the end of 2004 or beginning of 2005, they'll announce the next generation, which would be out in mid-2005 to late-2005... as soon as the announcement is made, it'll be less than a week before they drop prices to $100, or possibly $125 (counting for inflation and all).

Does that sound amiable to all?