After hearing that Microsoft were planning on reducing the Xbox 360 in order to combat the runaway success of Nintendo’s Wii, Sony now is planning to take action to combat the Nintendo DS. Nintendo’s two consoles are leading the way in terms of sales and popularity, beating the Sony and Microsoft efforts hands down.

In order to try and gain some ground on the Nintendo DS Lite, Sony announced there will be a new PlayStation Portable model coming out in October in Japan. The new model is released on October 16th, and Sony hope it will go some way to help them make up the ground on the DS Lite.

The new PSP, called the PSP-3000, has an inbuilt microphone and a better LCD display screen which will work better in stronger light, such as outdoors. The microphone will aid users to make phone calls with the machine using the Skye Web phone.

Shawn Layden, Sony’s Computer Entertainment president for Japan, stated:

The LCD is the face of a PSP, and it is an important feature of the 3000 model.

The price of the new PSP is said to be the same as the current model, slightly more expensive than the DS Lite. Currently the DS Lite has sold 6.94 million consoles worldwide, compared to Sony’s 3.72 million PSP consoles.