Sony Computer Entertainment America announced today that the price of its PlayStation 3 with an 80 GB hard drive will be $499 instead of $599, effective immediately.

Also the 40 GB PS3, announced earlier this month for Europe version will go on sale in United State on November 2.

Sony’s decision to cut the price of its gaming console has been widely expected at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, but Kazuo Hirai said at the time that there will be "no surprise in this regard this year".

"Price is a very important aspect, but at the same time the urgent matter is to what extent we can further enrich the software titles," he said. It seems like he suddenly changed his mind.

PlayStation 3’s price was heavily criticized by analysts and gamers alike, even from the moment it was announced for the first time. But Sony argued that the price is fully justified, because PlayStation 3 is also a media entertainment hub due to its BluRay drive.

Even with its BluRay, PlayStation 3 is lagging far behind its competitors and it was constantly outsold by Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360.

Sony’s stubbornness to slash the price of its gaming console was rather odd especially since after in July they decided to cut 100 dollars from the console’s price, there has been a rise in sales. July was a fine month for Sony as the Japanese company sold the maximum number of PS3 units, since its November 2006 debut. 159,000 consoles were sold in July compared to 98,500 the month before. It seems like Sony has finally learnt something from this experience.

According to Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, quoted by Bloomberg, due to the price cut Sony may sell as many as 450,000 PlayStation 3 consoles in November and almost 1 million in December.

So far, according to the media and analysts reports Sony has sold since the last year launch only 4.6 million consoles worldwide.

The motivations behind these price cuts and cost-saving policies are not only related to Nintendo’s suffocating rivalry or Microsoft’s continuous pressure, but also because Sony realizes it will again trail its rivals in the critical Christmas shopping season due to the lack of enticing games.

Still, when the 40 GB PS3 was announced in Europe, Sony said is ready to introduce a total of 65 titles across all genres by Christmas.

In the meantime, Microsoft reported that according to retailers all around the globe, that after launching Halo 3 in late September, Xbox 360’s sales doubled.

So far, for the holiday season the Redmond company has the most appealing gaming line-up. Beside Halo 3, the company has in its bag of goodies titles like Madden NFL 08, BioShock, the record-breaking Halo 3, Project Gotham Racing  4, Mass Effect, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Also Microsoft announced earlier this month it will include two great games, Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, with every Xbox 360 console and Xbox 360 Elite.