TOKYO - Following up on last week's reports that Japanese discount stores were drastically discounting the PSX, Sony itself has now lowered the price of the PS2-DVD-recorder hybrid. However, the company made no official announcement regarding the price drop.

According to Sony's official Japanese shopping site, the 160GB DESR-5000 will be dropping its MSRP from 59,800 yen ($545) to 44,800 yen ($409), while the higher-end 250GB DESR-7000 will drop from 79,800 yen ($728) to 59,800 yen ($545). These new official prices fall between the severe and moderate discounts reported last week.

This will actually be the second time that Sony has quietly dropped the price of the PSX, which was also discounted at the end of August. Until then, the PSX cost 74,000 yen ($675) for the 160GB model and 95,000 yen ($866) for the 250GB model.

Retailers all changed their prices over the weekend, with some discounting a little more to get an edge on their competition. A handful of small independent discount shops that specialize in selling cheap electronics began to slash their already low prices last week, causing mass speculation that shops were beginning to unload their PSX stocks.

PSX sales have continued to lag in Japan despite the release of a reworked model in July, and repeated attempts to promote the machine have proven fruitless. The major price cut will likely boost sales, especially since it makes the PSX one of the lowest-priced DVD-HDD recorders on the Japanese market. But the price cut also raises questions about whether Sony is just trying to boost sales of the PSX, or is planning to phase it out altogether.