"We still urge Sony to consider a possible hardware price cut this holiday season," said Divinich according to Gamasutra. "If September hardware sales fall below our estimate (under 200,000 units), it could be an indication that the Xbox 360 price cut played a bigger role on hindering PS3 sales than what we originally expected."

With Sony banking on its lineup of exclusives such as Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet to entice new customers, Divinich points to an even stronger Microsoft software lineup and the prohibitive cost of a PlayStation 3 as reasons why the company may be making a mistake.

"The $399 price point is simply too steep to entice the casual and mainstream markets, regardless of how great Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet may be," he added, after noting that the Xbox 360 exclusive Gears of War 2 will likely be this holiday's top seller.

At $399, the cheapest version of the PlayStation 3 is the recently-upgraded 80GB SKU, with a $499 160GB model soon replacing the existing $499 80GB unit. Microsoft recently slashed prices on its Xbox 360 consoles, with the cheapest unit, the hard drive-less Arcade model, now priced at $199. Meanwhile, the 60GB Pro model now sells for an MSRP of $299. Post-price cut sales data has not yet been released for comparison.