Sony Corp. is dropping the price of its PlayStation 3 gaming console by US$50 or 17 percent, as it looks to spur demand for the 5-year old console ahead of the year-end shopping season.

Sony Computer Entertainment cut the price Wednesday for the 160-gigabyte PS3 from US$299 to US$249 in North America, from 299 euros to 249 euros in Europe, and from 29,80 yen to 24,980 yen in Japan.Sony also cut the price 14 percent off the prices of the 320-gigabyte PS3 in the three leading markets.

Sony has already sold 52 million units of the PS3 worldwide. However, this trails the 55 million Xbox 360 units sold by Microsoft Corp. and the 86 million Wii consoles by Nintendo Corp.

AFP says that according to analysts, Sony may been prompted to cut the price of the PS3 after early this month Nintendo slashed the price of its slow-selling 3DS handheld console, released in February, by around 40 percent to 15,000 yen in Japan.

Device makers usually cut prices in these events: to spur demand for the device, or take on additional sales in the event a successor or replacement device is set to be released.

Market leader Nintendo has already unveiled in June the Wii U, the high-definition video-game console succeeding the five-year old Wii. The Wii U, which has a tablet-like touch screen and can be played without the TV, will be available next year, according to Nintendo.
With Nintendo preparing a global launch of the Wii U and many games already lined up, Sony's PlayStation 4 should not be far behind.
Sony has already confirmed that it has started development for the PS4 though it declined to say when the new console will be released.

Sony's latest announcement though hints that the PS4 could arrive later rather than sooner.

The Japanese electronics retailer said Wednesday that it will continue to expand the PS3 platform and an extensive line up of new titles for the PS3 are still about to be released by developers. The "blockbuster titles" include Samurai Warriors 3 Empires from TECMO KOEI GAMES Co., Ltd., MONSTER HUNTER PORTABLE 3rd HD Ver. from CAPCOM CO., LTD., TALES OF XILLIA from BANDAI NAMCO Games Inc., DARK SOULS from FromSoftware, Inc., PlayStationMove Everybody's Golf 5 Beginners Pack, Resistance 3, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception from SCE.

Citing Taiwan-based component makers, DigiTimes reported that production on the PS4 will start at the end of this year, and the new console will be launched next year. DigiTimes said the new console will boast a Kinect-like feature, allowing users to play games with only the movement of their bodies. Kinect is the motion-sensing controller for the Xbox.

A Sony spokesperson has said that the DigiTimes report is a "rumor", according to CNET.

Other sources also say that the PS4 won't be released next year.

Todd Howard, director of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, said in an interview with PSM3 magazine that the PlayStation 4, as well as the Xbox 720, won't be available until 2014. "I think it's going to be a while still, I really do. I think consumers are happy with the current ones, there's a lot you can do with them. So I don't think it's coming next year or the year after," Howard said.

Game blog Kotaku, citing its own sources, said early this year that neither Sony nor Microsoft were planning to launch follow-ups to their current consoles until 2014.

A 2014 release date for the new consoles Microsoft and Sony though could be a little too late as demand for these devices as well as its game titles have decreased due to the growing popularity of tablets and games on social networking sites like Facebook.

Apple Inc. has already sold more than 29 million units of the iPad since the release of the device in April 2010. Sales of tablets are expected to surpass 52 million this year, from only 18 million units sold last year. Though the consoles provide superior graphics, interface, and hardware for gaming, more consumers have been using the tablets, as well as smartphones, for gaming. The growing popularity of tablets has prompted Nintendo to create a tablet-like device as its Wii successor.

For Sony, pricing the PS3 at US$249 makes the device way cheaper than the US$499 iPad 2 and the US$399 Hewlett-Packard TouchPad.

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