GameStop predicts Q3 Wii, PS3 price cuts

Expects Nintendo and Sony to reduce prices to meet hardware sales forecasts

The boss of leading US games retailer GameStop expects Wii and PS3 sales cuts to be made later this year.

The company reckons 33.5 million hardware units will be sold in the States during 2009, but only if the two consoles' prices are reduced.

"That [sales figure] assumes that there will be price cuts on the PS3 and potentially one on the Wii," said GameStop CEO Daniel Dematteo. "It's hard to tell if we actually need a price cut on the Wii to get to our numbers. There are some price cuts built into that assumption, but not until the third quarter.

"I think as I said initially, the hardware price points where they're at right now, given this economic environment are potentially too high or are too high, and that if the platform holders are going to make the numbers that they forecasted for the year, those prices would have to change," he added, according to Seeking Alpha.

"Also, if you think about it, these hardware prices have stayed up longer in this cycle than in any other time before, and in a very dire economic environment, those two things seem to be mutually exclusive... Put all those things together, I think that there will have to be price cuts in order to get the hardware moving to where it needs to be."

Article supplied by ComputerandVideoGames.com

Written on 2009-05-22