Pachter says NX would be 'dead in the water' if it was a handheld priced at $399

WARNING - THIS IS A MICHAEL PACHTER FEATURE. If his comments enrage you, please avoid hitting the jump. If you are okay with his comments, please click through.

Coming from analyst Michael Pachter...

“If the NX is really a handheld with a docking station, it could have trouble getting noticed,” Pachter mused. “I think that NX will sell well if it gets third party support, and in order for that to happen, it has to be something that publishers think will sell well. It’s still impossible to have a forecast when we don’t actually know what it is or what it will cost. If it’s a console and costs $199, it will sell extremely well; if it’s a handheld and costs $399, it’s dead in the water. The odds are that it’s something in between, but I don’t want to guess until I see what it is.”

As far as rumors go, it seems like the NX is a hybrid portable/console with some sort of dock that lets you connect it to the TV. So it's both handheld and console. I wonder if that would make the price more palatable to Pachter, if it did indeed launch at $400. I sincerely doubt that though. I would imagine that Nintendo is going for the $250-$300 sweet spot.