Greenberg: Price cut boost won't last long

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg does not expect recent price cuts for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to leave a lasting impression on the console sales race.

"I don't believe the price cuts that both companies have made will impact the market dynamics too dramatically in the long term," Greenberg, who is director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, told Eurogamer in an interview published today.

"We typically see a month or two of lifts and share adjustments, but then things tend to settle back to roughly the established market ranking."

Sony cut the price of PlayStation 3 to £249 / €299 in Europe last month and introduced a smaller, redesigned console.

Microsoft subsequently cut the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to £199 and retired the old Xbox 360 Premium, although it said the price cut timing was a coincidence.

Both price cuts brought their respective parent companies handsome returns, with Xbox 360 enjoying a 43 per cent sales rise in one UK bank holiday weekend, before Sony was able to celebrate a 999 per cent jump week-to-week following the new PS3's launch and platform price drop.

And while Greenberg is sceptical about the two companies' pricing changes having a long-term effect on the market dynamic, he does see positives.

"We do, however, expect that these new lower prices will bring in more consumers that were potentially a bit resistant to the previous pricing in place," he explained in today's interview, before reiterating that platform-specific content remains a key part of Microsoft's strategy.

"Our focus continues to be on adding more value and more exclusive experiences across games and entertainment, so that consumers will continue to select the Xbox 360 as their console of choice," he said.

Xbox 360 certainly have more third-party exclusive content these days, thanks to mouth-watering deals with Rockstar for GTAIV DLC and Ubisoft for Splinter Cell: Conviction, among others, but Sony is lining up a pretty big counterpunch this Christmas with a string of first-party titles including the imperious Uncharted 2.

To find out what Greenberg reckons to the two firms' Christmas line-ups, and to see what he has to say about the HDMI cable being taken out of the Xbox 360 Elite box, among other things, check out the rest of the interview.