You knew it was going to happen: the only question was “when?” According to an analyst at Lazard Capital Markets, “when” is the end of April: expect Sony to cut about $20 off the price of its current Playstation 2 gaming console.
Although Sony has sold more than 100 million PS2 systems since their introduction, Sony had been widely expected to cut prices on its market-leading console in an effort to boost flagging sales numbers. In the past, price cuts on console systems about to exit the market have helped ignite moribund sales figures.
To date, 2005 has been a somewhat rocky year for the video game industry, with an unsteady launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 systems and repeated delays in the introduction of Sony’s much-anticipated Playstation 3. Sony’s Playstation 3 is currently expected to hit the market in November 2006.
The price cut would put the cost of a Playstation 2 console at about $130 in the U.S. market, down from roughly $150. Sony previously cut the price of the Playstation 2 from about $180 to $140 in June 2004.
