With E3 right around the corner and the holiday season fast approaching, it only makes sense that Sony might have something in mind to help boost their already respectable sales of the Playstation 3.

Via Gamasutra, Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian predicts that Sony’s plan is to slash the price tag of their next-generation video game console from its current retail price of $399 to an even more affordable $299 sometime in between June and this coming fall.

According to Sebastian, Sony is planning on increasing their sales number by thirty percent, a feat that could prove difficult with the Playstation 3’s current price tag.

Sony’s ability to cut back on manufacturing and production costs of the gaming console could allow for a potential price drop. Subsequently, a lower price tag would make it a more viable purchase for consumers and “provide the PS3 with a needed shot in the arm.”

Why exactly a $100 price drop though? Sebastian says a video game console’s “sweet spot” is to sell for less than $300. Additionally, he also expresses that anything less than a $100 price cut “would likely be perceived negatively by the market.”

A price drop would satisfy a number of parties. Not only would Sony be able to move more consoles (on hich they are currently losing $40 per unit sold), but third-party developers and publishers will be more inclined to create games for the Playstation 3.

In the past, companies like THQ and Activision had petitioned Sony to reduce the price of the Playstation 3, claiming that its price tag was negatively effecting software sales.

Sebastian’s speculation is nothing new, really, but it does reinforce the growing idea that the Playstation 3’s price tag is too expensive for most consumers, particularly in a such a turbulent economy.

While the Playstation 3 may boast the fastest and latest in technology (including its heavily touted Blu-Ray player) current sales numbers suggest that customers are gravitating more towards cheaper alternatives such as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii.

It is worth noting, however, that analysts have in the past incorrectly predicted a price drop for the Playstation 3. In February, Mike Hickey of Janco Partners said, “We believe the market is expecting a PS3 price cut in April or by June at the latest.”

April has come and gone, and as of today, no price cut is looking likely in June either.

In response to a wave of public criticism, yesterday, Bioware decided to lift the restriction in their community forums that previously prevented users from using words that referenced homosexuality. According to Eurogamer, Sean Dahlberg, Community Manager at BioWare, apologized on BioWare’s forums to gamers that might have been offended.

Earlier this week, Dahlberg publicly stated on the forums for BioWare’s upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic, that the words like “gay” and “lesbian” were automatically filtered and censored. Additionally, any conversations about homosexuality would be automatically closed down by forum moderators because homosexuality and terms like lesbian and gay did not exist in the Star Wars universe.

Strangely enough, though not canonically apart of Star Wars lore, in Bioware’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Cathar Jedi Knight Juhani can be a lesbian if your character’s gender is female. Additionally, in the extended Star Wars universe, there are numerous inferences to the questionable sexual preferences of some of its characters.

“My intention was not to demean anyone but simply to help promote a community that could discuss topics in a mature fashion,” said Dahlberg. “When I first built the word filter list, I added a variety of terms to the word filter that have been used numerous times in derogatory messaging. There were some words added to the filter that should not have been.”

“I have overstepped my boundaries in my original statement and I sincerely apologize for doing so.”

Several years ago, Blizzard ran into a similar problem when a moderator for World of Warcraft threatened to ban a gamer who was actively recruiting members for her gay-and-lesbian guild. Microsoft was also accused of discrimination earlier this year when they suspended a gamer who listed herself as a lesbian on her gamer profile.