Announced just before walking off stage at its Gamescom press conference, Sony Europe CEO Andrew House revealed a global price cut for the PlayStation 3. Effective immediately (in a sense), the console is now $249 in the US, €249 in Europe, and ¥24,980 in Japan. The $50 markdown hasn't hit Amazon and Gamestop just yet, but keep an eye out this week as the directive trickles down to retail.

Update: according to the US PlayStation blog, the 320GB PlayStation 3 is also dropping in price — $299 for both the standard retail and limited edition inFamous 2 bundles.