Console Wars: How PS3 Price Cut is Impacting Unit Sales

Two weeks ago, Sony (NYSE:SNE (ADR)) announced that they were cutting the price of their Playstation 3 console by $100 to a price of $299. It has been no secret that PS3 has been the laggard of the next generation consoles (Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360), but investors will want to know whether this price cut will stimulate growth of Sony's effort.

Initial indications in the search space is that the price cut has in fact driven consumers to express interest in purchase of the PS3 console. Looking through call-to-action "buy" keywords, with a filter to remove searches for consumers seeking to buy "points" on these consoles, it appears that searches for interest in purchasing the Playstation console.

It does not appear that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has had as much luck with their reaction to cut the price of their most expensive console, announced a week after Sony. Searches for Xbox purchases remained flat through last week.

These are still initial results and there is much left to be seen of where sales will sit once the dust settles, but the first response appears that Sony is winning this battle.

Disclaimer: Author owns shares in MSFT.