Sony to cut PlayStation 3 price in Japan, launch new model

Sony Corporation has decided to cut the price of its PlayStation 3 gaming console by 10% in Japan and also launch a new model.

This is seen as an attempt to boost demand for the gaming console as the 2007 year-end shopping season approaches.

The move by Sony, the Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment giant, follows a similar announcement from the company on its European game operations in the first week of October 2007.

The new model of PlayStation 3 is set for release on November 11, 2007.

PlayStation 3 has been trailing behind Nintendo’s hugely popular gaming console Wii because of the Sony device’s high price and scarcity of strong game titles.

Sony announced on October 9, 2007, that it would lower the price of PlayStation 3 with a 20GB hard drive from about $425 (49,980 yen) to about $385 on October 17, 2007.

Besides, the company will start selling its 60GB model for about $470. However, it has not so far proposed a price for the 60GB model, which currently has a retail price of about $510.

Apart from the price cuts, Sony Corporation – which has to compete with Microsoft and Nintendo in the gaming console industry – is launching a new PlayStation 3 with a 40GB hard-drive, costing about $340, in Japan.

The price of the planned model is still substantially higher than Nintendo's Wii, which sells at about $210.

Also, reports say that the 40GB model lacks some functions that the 20GB model offers, including compatibility with game software designed for PlayStation 2.

Sony has said that, as a part of a marketing campaign, it would give a complimentary copy of the movie Spider-Man 3 to the first 200,000 Japanese buyers of any of its PlayStation 3 models.

Microsoft, which makes the rival Xbox 360 gaming console, has announced that it would bundle two video games with the console, starting at the end of October 2007. This move has followed price cuts, in an apparent attempt to lure holiday shoppers.

However, despite price cuts by Sony and Microsoft, the sales of PlayStation 3 and Xbox still lag behind the Nintendo’s Wii – a lower-priced gaming console with a popular motion-sensing controller. In June 2007, Nintendo sold almost four times as many Wiis as Sony’s PlayStation 3 and almost twice as many as Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

According to analysts, though the reduction in prices is likely to boost sales of PlayStation 3 in Japan, the console’s competitiveness is still lower than that of Wii.

Sony has been hit by a shortage of software. The company has put off the launch of its Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the latest installment of Sony’s popular in-house racing game, to December 13, 2007, from October 2007.