The Associated Press reports that Sony on Thursday cut the price of its PlayStation 3 game console in the U.S. and announced an even cheaper model that will arrive before the holiday shopping season. The top-line PlayStation model, with an 80 gigabyte hard drive, now costs 499 USD, down from 599 USD. That eliminates the lower-end model, which has a 60 gigabyte drive and has sold for 499 USD. A new low-end model with a 40 gigabyte drive will go on sale Nov. 2 for 399 USD. Unlike the other PlayStation 3 models, the new one won’t be able to play games made for the PlayStation 2. Sony said this was due to a more extensive lineup of games of the PlayStation 3.

- David Laprad