Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities has forecast a 50-100 percent rise in PlayStation 3 sales for the month of September 2009.
Sony’s flagship console sold through 210,000 units last month as a result of the price cut issued following the company’s press conference at GamesCom in Germany. Said Pachter: "The late August price cut for the PS3 clearly drove a pick-up in demand, with that console’s sales up 73 per cent sequentially, and we expect another 50 – 100 per cent sales growth in September.”
"Xbox 360 hardware sales were again solid, again outselling PS3 hardware. Until the late August PS3 price cut, the Xbox 360 appealed to consumers, likely due to a higher perceived value proposition."
The analyst also highlighted the fact the PS3/360 are now priced at only $50 USD higher than the Wii, claiming that a fresh bundle or price reduction would be needed to stimulate lagging sales of the Nintendo platform.
“With the core PS3 and Xbox 360 models priced only $50 higher than the Wii, we expect year-over-year sales of Wii hardware to continue their annual declines until the company either changes its bundle or lowers price," he said. "Wii unit sales are 50 per cent below last year’s level over the last five months, and we think that September sales will repeat the pattern."