At Sony's Recent E3 event, Kaz Hirai announced that Sony's console will now be the same price as the Xbox. Sony Computer Entertainment America president and COO Kaz Hirai reminisced about the decade since the PlayStation's debut at the 1995 E3.

Sony has since shipped 170 million units of hardware, including 71 million PlayStation 2s. He highlighted the fact Sony will ship 14.1 million PlayStation 2s this year,"more than our competitors' consoles in their entire life cycle." Hirai said the situation was essentially the same now as it was when the PlayStation debuted. "Competitors [are] entering the market -and fading away," he said.

After Hirai gave a breakdown of the PlayStation 2's market history and demographics, he touched on a key issue--the price of the PlayStation 2.

"Effective immediately, the PlayStation 2 will be $149," he told the E3 audience. Hirai also promised a widespread media campaign promoting the new price point. "The health of the console market depends on us," he said.

The price drop has surprised virtually no one. Ever since Microsoft cut the price of the Xbox - a move which doubled the console's sales - analysts had been predicting Sony would have to respond with a drop of its own.