Sony has stepped up its initiative to establish Blu-ray as the high definition home entertainment format, by announcing a new Blu-ray disc player which will retail for US $599.
The BDP-S300 will go on sale early this summer and is priced the same as the recently released PlayStation 3. The previous model BDP-S1 currently retails for US $999.
The BDP-S300 is around the size of a standard DVD player and has all the features of the US $999 model, with the added benefit of being able to play CDs.
Sony is heavily promoting the Blu-ray format, recently offering initial European PlayStation 3 consumers a free copy of the movie Casino Royale when the console goes on sale on March 23.