Sony Corp. said on Monday it would cut the price of its PSPgo portable game player in the United States and Japan this month as game makers enter the crucial year-end shopping period.

Sony’s move comes a month after rival Nintendo Co. Ltd announced its much-anticipated 3D-capable DS portable game player would not be available until next year.

The price of the latest incarnation of the PlayStation Portable, launched about a year ago, will be cut to $199 from $249 in the United States and to 16,800 yen ($207) from 26,800 yen in Japan.

Sony, which is set to report quarterly earnings on Friday, has sold about 61 million units of the various PSP models since the initial launch in 2004.