Pachter predicts $50 price cuts in 2011, Xbox first to drop

Gaming analyst Michael Pachter expects good things from the industry in 2011, but not without a little sacrifice from the Big Three. Pach Attack prognosticated to Industry Gamers that "a $50 console price cut across the board will impact software sales by a positive 5 percent." (He expects to see an additional market boost from sales of 3DS, as well as Move and Kinect products.) Pachter further predicted the Xbox 360 to be the first to fall in price at some point during the spring of next year.

When questioned, competing analysts The Joystiq Consortium had a far more monolithic picture of 2011 to paint, saying, "It's basically just going to be Minecraft." Time will tell, we suppose.