Strategy Analytics, a research firm, has said that the Xbox 360 price cut will put butterflies in Sony's stomach, but that Sony will wait before "its next price move."

That was yesterday, just a day before Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced that the new GT5 Prologue hardware bundle includes the game at no higher cost than the standalone console.

The company's principal analyst, David Mercer opined, "Sony will be nervous that the PS3's recent sales surge may fizzle out now that the premium Xbox 360 undercuts the PS3 by GBP40, and the cheapest Xbox model is almost half the price of a PS3. Sony will be scrutinising the daily sales reports, but will probably try to hold out until later in the year before making its next price move."

While the bundling of GT5 Prologue doesn't constitute a price cut in the same mode as Microsoft's action, it certainly falls under the category of "price move". Oops...

Mercer went on to note, "Microsoft must continue to drive cost out of console manufacturing in order to sustain these improvements in financial performance". Cheers, David.