Sony: 20 million PS3 machines may be affected by glitch

Sony Corp. said about 20 million of its PlayStation 3 video-game consoles may not be able to connect to an online network because of a software problem.

That number doesn't include the latest, slimmer version of the PS3, Satoshi Fukuoka, a Tokyo-based spokesman for Sony's game unit, said today by phone. The company is working to fix the glitch by today, he said.

Sony introduced the slimmer version of the console in September, after reducing the PS3's price by 25 percent to about $300 in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

The Tokyo-based consumer-electronics maker sold 33.5 million PS3 players from 2006 through December, according to the games unit's Web site.

Sony gained 2.1 percent to 3,120 yen as of 9:14 a.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.4 percent.