TOKYO — Sony Corp. slashed the Japan price of its handheld game machine Monday ahead of the critical year-end shopping season.

Sony said the PlayStation Portable Go will drop in price starting Tuesday to 16,800 yen ($200) from 26,800 yen ($330).

Its price has already been coming down in the U.S. since last week from $250 to $199, according to Sony Computer Entertainment, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company’s game unit.

Cutting prices ahead of Christmas is common in the gaming industry, which tends to rake in more than half of its sales during the festive shopping season.

Sony faces tough competition in portable machines from Japanese rival Nintendo Co., which makes DS machines. They also face off in home consoles in a battle between Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii.

Such game machines also compete against Apple’s iPhone. The PSP Go is smaller than its predecessor and is only slightly bigger than an iPhone.

It does not play the Universal Media Discs that contain PSP games and videos and were used in older versions of the machines. Instead, content is stored on the PSP Go’s hard drive or memory stick. Game software is downloaded.