Gamertell

Just like Halo 3 it’s difficult to keep Wedbush Morgan’s leading video game analyst Michael Pachter from making news. Pachter wrote in his latest research note to investors that Halo 3 is going to sell about 3 million copies in the first 12 days after its launch. With all due respects to his insight, this prediction is just an inflation of the obvious. However, he has eruditely prescribed Sony a way in which it can counter the phenomenal Halo 3.

Pachter believes that Halo 3 will drive XBOX 360 sales, and expects 400,000 units of the console to sell in September, which would be a record number for a non-holiday month.  The Halo 3 driven rise in 360 sales will adversely impact PS3 sales a lot more than the Wii’s, as Wii is comfortably on top. So, Sony needs to find an answer to Halo3.

A possible answer to Halo 3 will be a cheaper 40 GB PS3 SKU and a PS2 price-cut according to Pachter. The analyst believes that Sony might soon announce a 40 GB PS3-- which will retail for $399 (affordable by PS3 standards)--and a drop in PS2 prices to $99.

Though rumors of both the 40 GB PS3 and PS2 price-cut have been doing the rounds in the media, but an official word from Sony has been missing. Pachter finds the Tokyo Game Show-which kicks off on September 20, barely a week ahead of the Halo 3 launch- to be an ideal platform for Sony to confirm these rumors-if at all it plans to. Pachter said that if Sony makes the announcement next week at TGS, then the PS3’s sales might register a higher than 18% growth that he predicted earlier.

Pachter has spoken, but the ball is still in Sony’s court. Halo 3’s rampant advance will have to be stopped before its too late, if Sony doesn’t want to loose whatever little momentum it has gathered in the console race. As of now, without any exclusive title in Halo 3’s league, Sony can only stop more gamers from buying the 360 by announcing a PS2 price-cut or offering a cheaper PS3 SKU.

Read [Next-Gen]

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