$50 CUT: The PlayStation 3’s new price of $249 is 17 percent lower than before. It’s the first price cut since 2009, when Sony Corp. launched a lighter, slimmer model of the video game system.
THE BOOST: Sony wants to drum up demand for the 5-year-old machine. The cut comes ahead of the holiday sales season. While the holidays are the busiest time for video games, August and September are also lucrative as college students stock up on games for their dorm rooms.
MICROSOFT RESPONSE?: Jesse Divnich, an analyst at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, believes Microsoft won’t match the cut for the Xbox 360 system until it sees what effect it has.