Sony Corp., the world's biggest maker of video-game consoles, cut the U.S. price of a PlayStation 3 model by 17 percent and introduced a less- expensive version to spur holiday sales.

The PlayStation 3 with an 80-gigabyte hard drive was cut to $499 from $599, effective immediately, Sony said in a statement today. A $399 model with 40 gigabytes of storage goes on sale Nov. 2, Jack Tretton, head of Tokyo-based Sony's U.S. video-game unit, said in an interview.

Sony is taking the steps to narrow the price gap with Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360. PlayStation 3, which includes a high-definition Blu-ray movie player, is the most expensive game console. Wii sales in the U.S. have more than doubled those of PlayStation 3 since the two machines were introduced last November. Sales also trail Xbox 360, which got a boost this month from the release of the ``Halo 3'' video game.

``Without this, it wasn't looking like there would be much action for PlayStation 3 this holiday,'' Billy Pidgeon, an analyst at research firm IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts, said in an interview. ``This is going to make retailers very happy.''

Lower prices may lift holiday PlayStation 3 sales as much as 50 percent by attracting avid game players and consumers shopping for a high-definition DVD player, said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.

Sony American depositary receipts rose 9 cents to $46.69 at 4:30 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have gained 9 percent this year.

`Spider-Man'

The $399 model comes with a Blu-ray DVD of ``Spider-Man,'' highlighting the console's movie-playing abilities.

``Putting a movie inside the box is very smart,'' Pachter said in an interview.

Sony may sell as many as 450,000 PlayStation 3 consoles in November and almost 1 million in December, Pachter said. Consumers have purchased 6.3 million Xbox 360s, introduced a year earlier, according to NPD Group Inc., a Port Washington, New York-based researcher.

Tretton said Sony's holiday marketing will stress the Blu- ray player in addition to game play. He declined to say how much the company will spend.

The price cuts follow similar moves in Japan and Europe. Sony said on Oct. 9 it would reduce prices in Japan and begin selling the 40-gigabyte model there on Nov. 11. The model went on sale in Europe Oct. 10.

The cheapest Xbox costs $280. The most expensive model, the Elite, goes for $479. The Wii sells for $249.

Sony may need to cut prices further to come close to matching the more than 120 million PlayStation 2s sold worldwide, Pachter said.

About 90 percent of PS2 consoles were sold after prices fell to $199 or less, Pachter said. The PlayStation 2, priced at about $129, still outsells PlayStation 3. In August, consumers purchased 202,000 of the consoles, compared with 130,600 PlayStation 3s, according to NPD.

Tretton said the older console's popularity is one of Sony's strengths.

``The PlayStation 3 is gravy,'' he said.