According to industry analyst Michael Pachter, both Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One will receive price cuts at some point this year. Meanwhile, Pachter predicts the Nintendo Switch will release a handheld-only mode at a cheaper price, which has been rumored for a little while now.
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“I think we’ll probably get a price cut on all of them,” said Pachter while speaking about the three consoles to GamingBolt. “And Nintendo may position it as a reinvented Switch. My guess is that Nintendo will take the Switch and get rid of the ‘Switch’ part, so it’ll be handheld only. They’ll probably just make the Joycons part of the integrated body of the tablet, and probably drop the price. Get rid of the docking station, and the external power supply- just turn the thing into a handheld that’s rechargeable with a power cord, you know, like a normal handheld, and charge $200 for it.”
Pachter continued:
“So they do that, Sony can probably cut the price, Microsoft probably will cut the price. You’ll probably get a $199 Xbox and a $249 PlayStation, and a $199 Switch that’s handheld only, and that’ll probably be enough to drive unit demand to keep it constant year-over-year.”
Of course, all of this should be taken with a grain of salt. Pachter has been right before, but he’s also been wrong before. That’s just the nature of predictions and speculation. And thus, nothing predicted should ever be taken as official confirmation of any sort.
That said, for what’s worth, I think Pachter is correct here. It appears the PS5 and next Xbox are 2020 bound. Meaning, another price cut should be on the agenda for this year in order to get the last round of systems out the door. Meanwhile, it makes sense Nintendo would want to ship a cheaper version of its system, and with the Switch it’s easy: just drop the plug-in console part. However, then it really isn’t the Switch anymore, so that would provide for a tricky marketing job. So, I’m not as sure about a hand-held only Switch as I am about a PS4 and Xbox One price cut.
Anyway, as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think. Will Sony and Microsoft dish out price cuts this year? Will Nintendo release a handheld-only Switch?
