Sony Corp., the world's largest maker of video game consoles, has cut the U.S. price of its PlayStation 3 model by 17 percent in an effort to increase sales and compete with other popular systems, according to U.S. media reports Thursday.
The PlayStation 3 with an 80-gigabyte hard drive was cut to 499 U.S. dollars from 599 dollars. A 399-dollar model with 40 gigabytes of storage will go on sale Nov. 2, said Jack Tretton, head of Tokyo-based Sony's U.S. video-game unit.
The cut is Sony’s attempt to compete with Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming systems. Sales of the Wii system have more than doubled that of the PlayStation 3 since the two machines were released last November.
“Without this, it wasn’t looking like there would be much action for PlayStation 3 this holiday,” Billy Pidgeon, an analyst a research firm IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts, said in an interview. “This is going to make retailers very happy.”
The 399-dollar model comes with a Blu-ray DVD of "Spider-Man," highlighting the console's movie-playing abilities.
"Putting a movie inside the box is very smart," said Michael Pachter in an interview, who is an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.
Lower prices may lift holiday PlayStation 3 sales as much as 50 percent by attracting avid game players and consumers shopping for a high-definition DVD player, Pachter added.
Sony also took the similar moves in Japan and Europe. On Oct. 9, Sony said it would reduce prices in Japan and begin selling the 40-gigabyte model there on Nov. 11. The model went on sale in Europe Oct. 10.
Source:Xinhua/agencies
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