Despite Microsoft's Xbox 360 price cuts and an analyst warning that the PlayStation 3 is too expensive, Sony is sticking to its guns by refusing to reduce PS3 prices.

Kazuo Hirai, President and Group Chief Executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, told the Financial Times last week that gamers shouldn’t hold out any hope for a PS3 price-cut this year.

“The answer is yes, if you’re asking ‘Are these the prices we’re going with this Christmas?’,” he told the paper.

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Hirai’s comment echoed one made in August by David Reeves, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), when he said that SCEE is “not going to drop the price this year”.

The 40GB PS3 currently retails for around £300 ($512/€378), while Microsoft recently cut the cost of all three Xbox 360 models by around £20 in the UK to bring the cheapest model's cost down to around £130 ($222/€166).

However, Hirai added that because the Arcade - the cheapest of the three Xboxes - doesn’t include a hard drive, the PS3 offers better value for money because all its models come with a Blu-ray player as standard.

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