In an effort to find greater success in their home market, Sony has slashed the price of the Playstation 3 in Japan and introduced a new 60GB unit. The efforts come as Sony tries to stay close with their main Japanese rival, Nintendo.

Japan's Sony Corp. announced plans Tuesday to slash the price of the PlayStation 3 game console in its home market and launch a new slimmed down version as it tries to catch up with Nintendo's hit Wii.

Sony will cut the price of the standard 20-gigabyte hard disk drive PS3 by 10 percent to 44,980 yen (384 dollars) from October 17, ratcheting up the competition with its rivals ahead of the crucial year-end sales period.

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