CULVER CITY, California (Reuters) - Sony Corp 6758.T will launch a lighter, slimmer model of its PlayStation Portable handheld video game console in September for about $170, the company said on Wednesday.

On Monday, the Japanese electronics conglomerate cut the U.S. price of its PlayStation 3 by $100 in a bid to increase sales of the game console.

The new PSP will be 33 percent lighter and 19 percent slimmer than the current PSP, a handheld for playing games and watching movies that has been overshadowed by Nintendo Co Ltd’s less expensive DS.

Kazuo Hirai, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, made the PSP announcement during a presentation at the E3 video game exposition. A spokeswoman for Sony told Reuters the slimmer PSP would retail for about $170, the same as the current PSP.