PS3’s U.S. sales double after price cut

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U.S. sales of Sony’s PlayStation 3 more than doubled in the weeks following a price cut and the launch of a lower-priced version, the company said Friday. Sony said it sold about 75,000 PS3 consoles in the week of October 29 in the United States, and more than 100,000 in the following week, compared with weekly sales of 30,000 to 40,000 before.

Sony cut the U.S. price of its PS3 with an 80GB hard drive by 17 percent to $499 in mid-October. It started selling a new model with a 40GB hard drive on November 2 for $399 in an effort to ignite demand ahead of the crucial holiday-shopping season.

Sony, locked in battle with Microsoft and Nintendo in the global video game market, suffered a slow start for the PS3 after its launch a year ago because of high prices and a scarcity of strong game titles.

Nintendo sold 519,000 units of the Wii in the United States in October, while Microsoft sold 366,000 Xbox 360 consoles and Sony sold 121,000 of its PS3 machines, data from market researcher NPD released Thursday.