SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 11 (Reuters) - Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) is likely to lower the PlayStation 3 price again by the year-end following this week's $100 cut, a senior executive at Japanese game software maker Capcom Co. Ltd. (9697.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said. "The number of PS2 users is still growing and a shift to the PS3 is on the back burner," Capcom Chief Financial Officer Kazuhiko Abe told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
"But, the price has been cut once and it is likely to be cut again towards the end of the year. I expect the (PS3's) installed base to grow gradually."
Sony on Monday cut the price of the PS3 to $500 in the United States in a move to breathe life into sluggish demand. The new price is still $20 more than the most expensive version of Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Xbox 360 and twice as much as that of Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research) Wii.
Abe, visiting Santa Monica for the E3 video game exposition, also said sales of its action horror title "Resident Evil 4" for the Wii will likely exceed its target of 420,000 units for the current business year to March 2008.