Analyst: Cheap PS3 Identical to Costly 360. Price Similar to PSOne

August 25th, 2006, 17:14 Posted By: wraggster

To date, Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, has made some of the juicier comments on the emerging PlayStation 3 to come from the financial sector, claiming that in real-terms, the PlayStation 3 shares much of its commercial DNA with the Xbox 360.

"PS3 will sell out at $499. It may sound like a lot of money but is certainly not significantly more in inflation-adjusted dollars than the PS1 at $300 in 1995. The "cheap" PS3 and the "expensive" 360 are identical in all respects, save for the Blu-ray drive. Both have similar processors, 20GB hard drives, and DVI cable interfaces that will support 720p high definition," Pacter told Gamespot.

Indeed, Pacter believes the only difference lies in the pricing options for the consoles' high-definition movie platforms. "The difference in price is $100, so if you like Sony more and want a relatively inexpensive option to buy into high-definition movies, the cost is probably justified. In other words, consumers will compare the $499 PS3 to the $399 Xbox 360 and will likely decide based upon the potential selection of software (Japanese, US, and European for Sony, US and European for Microsoft), plus their assessment of the likely winner in the format war. If Blu-ray is the standard, the price differential will hold."

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