Sony forecast earlier on Tuesday that PS2 sales in the business year ending March 2005 would fall by as much as 30 percent, a much sharper decline than analysts had expected. Unless Sony cuts the price on its PS2 in order to spur sales, U.S. game software makers, many of whom track Sony's fiscal year, may find sales growth targets harder to reach, analysts said. Sony's forecast that it would ship 14 million PS2s in the fiscal year to March 2005, down from 20.1 million in the year ended March 2004, came as a surprise to some analysts.
The basic PS2 sells for $179 in the United States, making it the highest priced of the three consoles. Microsoft cut the price of the Xbox to $149 from $179 in late March and saw its sales double in the days following. American Technology Research analyst P.J. McNealy said the Xbox was likely to overtake the PS2 on a units-sold basis for the first time ever in the United States in April. He estimated Xbox sales of 275,000 units this month, versus about 200,000 units for the PS2. PS2 sales have been falling in the United States this year, and in the just-ended fiscal year Sony said PS2 unit shipments fell 37 percent in North America. There has been a rising clamor from game publishers for Sony to cut the price of the PS2 by the opening of E3, the video game industry's annual trade show, the week of May 10.
News source: Yahoo
