Sony has taken the rare move of dropping the price of its Vita console in Japan, before one of its executives has to take a knife to his bowels for failure.

The company is watching in horror as its home market of Japan loses interest in consoles like the Vita when they can have more fun on a smartphone. The maker of Playstation consoles trimmed the price of its 3G Wifi version by $110 to $215.42, with all other models also reduced, it said in a statement. Tablets and smartphones are encroaching on the gaming market, with handheld consoles in particular suffering.

Sony this month trimmed its forecast for handheld sales, including the Vita and older PSP, to 7 million machines in the year ending March 31 compared with an estimate of 16 million at the start of the business term. The Vita price comes ahead of a rare Playstation gathering in New York on February 20, when Sony is expected to reveal the successor to its Playstation 3 home console.

Of course if all of this fails to attract anyone’s interest there will be a special display of the ancient art of seppuku in the Sony carpark afterwards.