According to a city analyst (not that they ever get anything wrong mind you), there’s rumours abound that Sony is to announce a price cut for their hardware, along with, perhaps, a non-Blu-ray version of the PS3.

“Recent channel checks indicate increased speculation for a PS3 price cut announcement from Sony in the next couple of days” said Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey on Tuesday. (source – Edge).

One of the easiest ways to reduce the price of the PS3 would (naturally) be to cut the expensive Blu-ray player feature out of the machine, resulting in (potentially), a saving that could be passed on to the consumer to the tune of around $100.

However, this move would seem unlikely given the fact that all current PS3 retail games are produced on the higher capacity discs rather than the older format of DVD. Moving to a two-tiered console base would require Sony to produce two variants of each game – something that they are unlikely to move to. Perhaps then Sony will announce a console that requires an add-on to play Blu-ray movies such as a dongle of some kind?

It’s my guess that a price cut might well arrive, but I can’t see it being at the expense of the Blu-ray player. Perhaps instead they’re working on a killer IP that will actually help to sell their console in larger numbers than they are currently achieving. One or two killer exclusives would cement the console into the homes of many.