Price Cut Coming for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360?

A source from Ars Technica has released details about expected console price cuts and bundle changes that could be happening by the end of this year. The mole can’t be named but apparently he has a very good reputation for getting the right information involving price console price cuts.

On the Sony side of the price cuts, it has been reported that the console giant is planning to reduce the price of the 160GB console bundle, cut down the amount of 80GB consoles going on sale, and finally they plan to release the 120GB Playstation 3 Slim console this autumn.

The source also said that Sony are currently sending more 160GB consoles to retailers and also reducing the amount of 80GB consoles being dispatched. Currently retailers have around 60 days supply of the 80GB system. Once this supply has run out, we might see a price cut of the 160GB system, how much will be cut is unknown.

The price cut by Sony doesn’t really come as a surprise considering they are continuously coming in third place in console sales behind the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. Plus with the news a few weeks ago that Activision might stop supporting the PS3 unless the price is cut and sales improve.

However, the price cuts that Microsoft have planned is a bit of a surprise, no doubt it’s to stay one ahead of Sony. The Ars Technica source said that Microsoft plan to sell out the stock of middle range Xbox 360 Pro consoles that they currently have, once this stock is gone, they are planning to basically replace the Pro with the 120GB Xbox 360 Elite console by lowering the price to the same as the current Pro bundle. This price cut is expected to come during this September once the Pro consoles have been sold off.

Of course the console giants have rejected these rumours, “Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation.”, however, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the cuts from Sony and then to stay ahead of Sony, the Microsoft cuts are certainly possible.

We’ll have to wait till later in the year to find out if these rumours are true.