Despite analyst’s expectations, Sony has gone on record to say that it will not lower the price of its PlayStation 3 (PS3) console this year.

As Patrick Seybold of SCEA explains to Edge, Sony believes that its lineup, not a lowered price, will push the PS3 ahead this holiday season.

“We aren’t making any price moves this holiday season. In my opinion, we have the best line up of any PlayStation generation going into this holiday and consumers will be very receptive to it … With PS3 titles for this including Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift to name but a few of our multiple exclusives, combined with PlayStation Home and increasing multimedia features for the hardware, we expect to have continued momentum going into and beyond this holiday season.”

Price has always been a major sore point among consumers when considering the PlayStation 3, which is the most technically sophisticated of the current console generation.  With last month’s Xbox 360 price drop and the already-lower price of the Nintendo Wii, analysts expected Sony to push the PS3′s price down for the holidays.

Sony will have to hope that consumers will be as impressed with its lineup as they expect.

Microsoft has dropped the price of its Xbox 360 console in North America.  The basic Xbox 360 Arcade will now retail for $199 U.S., while the Premium and Elite consoles will sell for $299 and $399, respectively.

The company also dropped the console’s price in Japan recently.  A drop in the UK is expected soon as well.

Microsoft hopes that the new price will bring the console within reach of a larger market and raise the profile of the Xbox 360 even higher, as well as improve sales over the upcoming holiday season.