The rumours that a PS3 price cut is to be announced this coming Easter holiday intensified this week, as Sony approaches the end of the current financial year on 31 March.

It looks very likely that a price cut will be announced in April, the first month of the new financial year. Clearly Sony is not going to confirm or comment on rumours before that date, in order to not destroy demand prior to Easter.

"Recent channel checks indicate increased speculation for a PS3 price cut announcement from Sony in the next couple of days," Janco Partners' Mike Hickey told Edge this week.

"We think the company needs to reduce the current price by $100 to effectively restart unit velocity at retail. We believe the market is expecting a PS3 price cut in April or by June E3 at the latest," the analyst added.

"If Sony does not cut the price of their console, we expect the continuation of languishing PS3 hardware sales and the potential for publishers to accelerate their reallocation of resources away from the PS3 console."

Unfortunately, Hickey then immediately undermined his own credibility by adding: "We are also hearing continued speculation that Sony is working on a non-Blu-ray PS3 console, which could enable them to make the aforementioned hardware price reduction."

Riiiight…

Back in the real world

Sony will announce a PS3 price cut following the end of its financial year on 31 March. We will have to put up with another month and a bit of rumours until we know for sure how much that price drop will be.

"We suggested late last year that a price cut would take place after the end of Sony's fiscal year," Screen Digest's Senior Analyst Piers Harding-Rolls told TechRadar.

It certainly won't be 'within days' then.

"The company has had its hands tied concerning a price reduction this fiscal year, but we expect things to loosen up after the end of March," adds the Screen Digest analyst.

"I would be somewhat surprised if the company announced a straight price cut this far in advance of any move as people will just hold out for the drop.

"The strength of the Yen makes any price drop in Europe a more costly exercise, so this factor is likely to have an impact on the extent of any pricing movement. Any price cut will need to be sizeable enough to make an impact, yet take into account that a lot of Euro and Sterling value has been lost already due to the rising value of the Yen."