Sony faces continued pressure from games publishers to lower the price of the PS3 to compete in the market.

There is likely to be a $50 to $100 cut in price, said Mike Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners to Bloomberg. This prediction comes despite previously resisting attempts to lower the price of its world renowned powerhouse.

The most expensive of the three big consoles, the PS3 is currently also being outsold drastically by market leader the Nintendo Wii, which has sold double the PS3 units, and sits in 3rd place in sales behind the Xbox 360.

Many game publishers are now diverting their attention to the Nintendo Wii, with Activision Blizzard generating 32 percent of its console revenue from its Wii titles, compared to 19 percent from its PS3 counterpart in 2008.

“You can’t ignore the guy who has half the market,” said head of sports games at Redwood City Peter Moore to Bloomberg, “Sony obviously still has a ways to go with their pricing”.

Sony faces a tough decision amidst the current economic climate, with Nintendo set to raise the price of the Nintendo Wii, cutting the price may not be a simple option. Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America in Foster City, California, told Bloomberg that whilst “everybody in the development community would love for the PS3 to be free,” Sony are concerned with their own profitability.

TGR’s own Rumour Killers recently contacted a spokesman for Sony on the rumours of possible price cuts who stated "There are no plans for a price reduction on PS3, and anything reported on or discussed otherwise is purely rumor or speculation.” But despite Killzone 2 and Resident Evil 3 raising sales for the time being, lowering the price of the home console may be inevitable.

Sony is currently cutting 16,000 jobs and closing down factories in a bid to cut costs to battle flailing returns. Despite hitting recent landmark sales figures in the UK for the PS3 and PSP, it seems Sony has a way to go to boost sales in the extremely competitive gaming market in order to appease games publishers.