In his E3 summary, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter revealed that he thinks that Sony will soon make $499 the de-facto price cap for PlayStation 3. That means, after the 60GB model’s stock is depleted, the price of the new 80GB model will eventually fall to $499.

The reasons why Sony can afford to do this are various. First the 80GB model is lacking PS2 hardware support for emulation, instead it uses a software-based emulator for PS2 games. Secondly, both hard drive and Blu-ray production costs are falling.

If Sony does the cut the price of the 80GB model soon after the 60GB is sold out, I’m sure the 3 million or so customers who bought a 60GB won’t be happy. But that’s what you get for being an early adopter these days.

Pachter: $499 PS3 is ‘Here to Stay’ [GameDaily]

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