Sony's PlayStation 3 to sell for at least 499 dollars (AFP)

TOKYO (AFP) - Sony Corp (NYSE: - ) has set a price tag for its PlayStation 3 video game console of at least 499 dollars in the United States and 62,790 yen (563 dollars) in Japan, far higher than rival Microsoft's 360.

Sony's next generation console will go on sale in Japan on November 11 and in the United States and Europe on November 17, Sony Computer Entertainment, a unit of the Japanese electronics giant, said in a statement.

In the United States the 20-gigabyte disk drive version will retail for 499 dollars and the 60-gigabyte model for 599 dollars. The Japanese price for the larger version has not yet been set.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 is already on sale in the United States for 299 dollars or 399 dollars with a hard drive.

The announcement came about two months after Sony delayed the launch of the PlayStation 3 by six months to November due to technical reasons.

The company said it now plans to ship two million units globally in the three weeks following the launch, aiming for global shipments of six million units by the end of March 2007.

Microsoft, which launched the Xbox 360 in November last year, aims to sell 5.5 million units by July this year.

Sony and Microsoft will face a challenge from their rival Nintendo which plans to start selling its next-generation video game console, recently renamed "Wii", later this year.

The PlayStation 3 is one of Sony's core products and its success is considered vital to a revival after a profit slump at the group which last year announced a major overhaul including 10,000 job cuts by March 2008.

The PlayStation 3 will be equipped with a "Cell" processor, jointly developed with IBM and Toshiba, which is about 35 times faster than the existing consoles and about twice as quick as the Xbox 360.

Sony is also using its next generation Blu-ray Disc technology in the PlayStation 3 in the aim of making it a home entertainment centre.

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