As a penny-pinching holiday season looms, videogame companies are cutting game-console prices, beefing up supplies and releasing a vast crop of new games in hopes of attracting a wider audience.

In September, Microsoft Corp. dropped the price of its Xbox 360 console to $199 from $279. Nintendo Co. has increased the supply of its popular Wii consoles by 50% in the U.S. from last year's holiday season, when it sold about 2.85 million machines amid widespread shortages. Both Microsoft and Sony Corp. are offering new online capabilities for their consoles, such as movie downloading.

The videogame industry is striving to keep up its momentum. Most videogame consoles have already been out in the market for several years, meaning that many hardcore gamers have purchased one. So in addition to feeding their core constituency with traditional shoot-'em-up offerings, videogame makers have developed more "everyman" games.

The titles, which go beyond the typical videogame fare aimed at young men and teenagers, feature creative themes, such as imaginary-world simulations, that a broader audience might enjoy. The hope is that more families will buy systems and games to play together.

Yet the strategy has run headlong into the economic downturn, with many consumers now snapping their wallets shut. Total sales of videogame software and hardware are expected to rise 22% this year to $22 billion, according to Anita Frazier, an analyst at NPD Group, a market-research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y. That's far slower than last year's 43% growth rate.