The new version that helped Sony last year to outsell Nintendo Wii for first time in mont is sold for 39,800 yen, being much cheaper than the discontinued models.

The 20 GB version, introduced in Japan in November 2006 is sells for 44,980 yen ($410), while the 60 GB model is priced at 54,980 yen.

The 40 GB PS3 has two USB ports instead of four and Sony ditched also the multi-memory card port. Unlike the 80 GB PS3, the 40 GB version model isn’t compatible with the PlayStation 2 games.

The company will "vigorously promote the expansion of the PS3 platform by further concentrating on the 40GB hard disk drive model," Sony Computer Entertainment said in a statement

Earlier this week the Japanese company announced that during December in US it has sold 1,2 million PS3s in 39 days, from November 23 to December 31.

Meanwhile, according to the data released by the Japanese research firm Enterbrain, Nintendo Wii stroke back during the holiday season in Japan.

Enterbrain said that in the last five weeks of 2007, Nintendo sold 774,123 Wiis, while Sony has managed to reach only 232,421 PS3s. The Wii sales were pushed by the Japanese launch of Wii Fit, a fitness games that includes more than 40 types of training activities.

As for Microsoft, its Japanese sales have proven again to be a disaster, as it has sold only 38,994 units.