Sony Corp., the world’s leading maker of gaming consoles and consumer electronics, is projected to decrease pricing of its PlayStation 2 machines in a bid to be more competitive on the market and spur higher demand for the existing game machines.

“Our industry checks indicate that Sony is planning to cut the PS2 price to $129 from the current $149 before the end of this month,” said Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets said in a client note, Reuters reports.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) is currently the leading supplier of game consoles and is highly ranked among enthusiasts, but its main rival Microsoft Corp. is gaining momentum with its Xbox 360 game console, the product that Sony will compete with the new-generation PlayStation 3 machine. Nevertheless, keeping the computer games as well as gaming machines sales high, Sony needs to lower the prices, analysts believe.

“Hardware price cuts are necessary not only to drive demand at the end of a console cycle, but also to bring the current-generation consoles within reach of more value-oriented customers,” Mr. Sebastian said.

Sony last cut the price on its stand-alone PlayStation 2 to $149 from $179 in June 2004. To date, the company’s worldwide PS2 shipments have topped 101 million units, Reuters news-agency reported.

But the analyst added that Microsoft Corp. could “also trim the price on its Xbox game console”, but said the impact of that would be limited due to “dwindling supplies of the company’s first game machine that now sells for around $149”.

Microsoft Xbox 360 console is based around microprocessor developed by IBM, high-definition visual processing unit designed by ATI Technologies, I/O controller engineered by SiS and some other key components. The gaming machine will provide a broad set of multimedia capabilities in addition to games. Depending on the bundle, Microsoft Xbox 360 costs $299 or $399.