Sony says to launch 80-GB PlayStation 3 in Japan

People play a game on the Sony Playstation 3 at a party held by Sony celebrating the new Playstation 3 game console in Berlin March 22, 2007. Japan's Sony Corp said on Thursday it will start selling PlayStation 3 game consoles with an 80 gigabyte hard disk drive, bigger than previous models, in Japan at the end of October for 39,980 yen ($398).

CHIBA, Japan (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp said on Thursday it will launch PlayStation 3 game consoles with an 80 gigabyte hard disk drive, bigger than previous models, in Japan at the end of October for 39,980 yen ($398).

That would be the same price as the current 40-GB model sold in Japan, and the company plans to phase out the smaller hard-drive machine. Sony already sells 80-GB PS3 consoles in Europe and North America.

Sony dominated the global video game industry for a decade from the mid-1990s, but sales of the PS3 have lagged those of Nintendo Co's Wii console. It also has to get to grips with a recent price cut by Microsoft Corp, its other main rival.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America chief executive Jack Tretton this month said PS3 and its portable cousin, the PSP, are selling faster than expected and are poised to meet full-year sales targets even if the current economic crisis hurts holiday demand.

Sony has said it aimed to sell 10 million units of the PlayStation 3 and 15 million units of the PlayStation Portable in the year to the end of March 2009.

As of 0444 GMT, Sony shares were up 8.4 percent at 2,585 yen, outperforming a 1.7 percent rise in the Nikkei average. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Hugh Lawson)