News: Sony cuts game designers' prices

Sales of the Playstation 3 have picked up since prices were cut

Sony has halved the price of a software development kit that designers need to make games for its PlayStation 3 (PS3).

The attempt to woo game designers follows last month's price cut on the PS3 itself.

Although its predecessor dominated the games console market, the PS3 has struggled against the Nintendo Wii.

PS3 sales are particularly important for Sony because it plays the Blu-ray high definition DVD format, which is competing with the rival HD-DVD format.

Sony says that sales of the PS3 have improved since its price was cut from about $599 (£292) to about $499 in the US, Europe and Japan.

Sales of the PS3 in Japan beat the Wii for the first time in the week beginning 5 November.

The PS3 is technologically more advanced than the Wii, but that makes it more difficult and expensive to develop new games for it.

Many of the companies that originally designed games for the PlayStation 2 are now bringing out versions for the Wii.

Sony says that the price cut is part of its efforts to cooperate with software developers in the hope that they will design more games for the PS3.

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