We haven’t heard from Webush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter for a while (his lack of quotes last week had me worried that maybe he had fallen ill), but we can all breathe again as he’s come back swinging, this time telling us that the PS3 and Xbox 360 are never going to reach the numbers in sales of the last generation of consoles until they drop their price. And not by a little, but by a lot.

"As consoles come down in price," he explained to Gamepro, "the manufacturers will sell more of them, and the market will continue to expand. Around 90% of last-generation console sales were made at the $199 price point or below."

Continuing, he said, "Only wealthy or hardcore gamers have purchased consoles so far, given that the PS3 is still $399, the 360 is still $349, and the Wii is still $249. When prices drop below $200 (probably in 2010), the mass market [for PS3 and 360] will emerge."

So while our old buddy Michael would approve of the rumored 360 price drop, he’d tell you it isn’t enough, and that prices have to come down even further before the magic happens. I don’t know if we’ll ever see this generation of consoles (besides the Wii) get to $199, considering what a loss each unit sells for already; it would be a stretch for Sony or or Microsoft to drop prices much further than they have already. But of course, he’s the analyst, and I’m just here to write about what he says in a skeptical manner.