Sony slashes Playstation 3 price

Sony has made a 20 per cent cut in the price of the Playstation 3 today in an apparent reaction to a Microsoft announcement that the rival Xbox 360 console is to be upgraded to support high-definition.

This PS3 price-cut applies to the Japanese version of the 20GB model, due to be launched this November. No reduction has been made on the expected US and European prices, nor is there any change in the worldwide pricing of the PS3’s premium 60GB version.

The PS3, first showcased at the E3 conference in May, incorporates a Blu-ray drive to provide enough storage to enable movie playback and high-definition games. Sony has been pushing its HD support as giving it an edge over the Xbox.

But yesterday Microsoft announced a software upgrade, which will allow the Xbox to output high-definition; it will also offer a £90 HD-DVD external drive for the console. The Xbox 360 was released last November, while HD-DVD was still in development.

Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft have been the dominant players in the console market since Microsoft’s entry with the original Xbox in 2001. The battle for market share is fierce. Microsoft’s HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 debuts on November 17 in an attempt to deflect attention from the US launch of the PS3 on the same day.

Consoles traditionally sell well in the run-up to Christmas. Nintendo’s Wii console is scheduled for European release in December, however that of the PS3 has slipped back until March.