Michael Pachter Predicts PlayStation 4 Will Be $349, Xbox One Will Be $399

<p>Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has made his own predictions regarding the prices of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One&comma; and they&&num;8217&semi;re pretty reasonable&period; In an E3-Preview note sent to various investors&comma; Pachter predicted that Sony&&num;8217&semi;s PlayStation 4 will come out at a cost of &dollar;349&comma; while Microsoft&&num;8217&semi;s Xbox One will be &dollar;50 higher at &dollar;399&period; His guesses are based on the material costs of both systems&comma; with the PS4 being &dollar;275 and the Xbox One being &dollar;325&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite the Xbox One having a predicted higher price&comma; Pachter stated that it could be subsidized through a subscription contract with a broadband&comma; cable or ISP provider&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We believe the ability to watch live TV from a cable&comma; telco&comma; or satellite set-top box through Xbox One could entice an MSO to drive subscriptions through a subsidized box in exchange for a multi-year contract&period; The &&num;8216&semi;always connected&&num;8217&semi; requirement for the Xbox One likely means that a broadband connection will be required&comma; suggesting to us that ISPs may have an incentive to offer a subsidy as well&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;In addition&comma; Microsoft could conceivably subsidize the Xbox One through prepaid Xbox Live Gold subscriptions &lpar;as it has done on a limited basis in the past&rpar; or premium Skype functionality as well&period; Similarly&comma; Sony could subsidize the PS4 through prepaid PlayStation Network subscriptions&comma; but unlike Microsoft&comma; it does not have a history of doing so&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;next-xbox-coming-in-november-standalone-version-to-cost-499&sol;">A subscription model for the Xbox One was mentioned a while back by Paul Thurrott<&sol;a>&comma; however&comma; many of the details are different here&comma; as Thurrott claimed that the system would be &dollar;499 with an Xbox Live subscription model going for &dollar;299&period; Seeing as how Microsoft has yet to say anything&comma; the possibility still remains that Thurrott is correct&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Pachter also went on to note that price drops are expected to hit the Xbox 360&comma; PlayStation 3 and Wii&comma; with the Xbox 360 and PS3 dropping by &dollar;50 and the Wii dropping to &dollar;99&period; Vita and Wii U price cuts are also said to be a possibility&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&dollar;350 and &dollar;400 price points for Sony and Microsoft&&num;8217&semi;s next-gen systems seems affordable enough&comma; but in the case of the Xbox One and its aim to be an all-in-one entertainment box&comma; it wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t surprise me if Microsoft tried to charge a little more for it&period; It&&num;8217&semi;d be disappoint for sure&comma; but not incredible off-putting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lbrace;Source&colon; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;gamesindustry&period;biz&sol;articles&sol;2013-06-03-pachter-playstation-4-to-sell-for-USD349-xbox-one-USD399">GamesIndustry<&sol;a>&rcub;<&sol;p>&NewLine;