Most gamers who don’t already own a PlayStation 3 have been avoiding the purchase because they believe the console is just too expensive, or because they feel the PlayStation 3 doesn’t have enough games yet to be worth the investment. Last week, Sony made a few changes to make it easier for game developers to create for the PlayStation 3.

Most of the details may not be of interest to average gamer, so the simple summary is this: Sony has made it cheaper to purchase the tools for developing PlayStation 3 games and has added more tools to the PlayStation 3 Software Development Kit (SDK).

The cost of Sony’s PlayStation 3 Development Tool has been dropped to nearly half its previous levels, now costing $10,250 in North America, €7,500 in Europe and ¥950,000 in Japan. Sony has also released a system update for Debugging Stations that will allow the debug unit to participate in programming activities after an update. Finally, Sony has added a variety of programming tools to the PlayStation 3 SDK from one of Sony’s companies, SN Systems.