I've yet to get my hands on one of Sony's (NYSE:SNE) much-ballyhooed PlayStation 3 units, but if even just a scintilla of the hype surrounding the product is to be believed, the thing is going to do for video games what the microwave did for leftovers: revitalize -- if not revolutionize -- them. Indeed, though it was a neck-and-neck race to be sure, even the grizzled gaming vets over at CNET (NASDAQ:CNET) have given PS3 the nod over both Nintendo's newfangled Wii and Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox 360.

According to CNET's review, in fact, PS3's "swanky design and bevy of features . . . make it hard to resist -- even at $600."

Save your allowance
That's a nose-bleed price tag to be sure, but bargain hunters among the investing -- as opposed to the gaming -- set should sit up and notice: Sony's stock is a relative bargain, trading with a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio that's half its industry's average and with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio roughly 35% off its five-year high.

These discounts, moreover, come despite the fact that Sony did more than $63.5 billion in business in fiscal 2006, raking gobs more revenue than competitors like Philips (NYSE:PHG), Sanyo, and Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) did in their most recently ended fiscal years.

The short story, then, is this: With no less an authority than Dr. Jeremy Siegel suggesting that U.S. investors consider allocating up to 40% of their portfolios to foreign stocks, Sony looks like an intriguing way to "go global" just now.

That said
Make no mistake: Sony has had its struggles of late. While its revenue figures were juicy last year, free cash flow (FCF) -- cash from operations minus expenditures -- was another story. The company has a great FCF track record, but in fiscal 2006, it shed a big chunk of the stuff. And by now, everyone and his uncle is aware of Sony's massive battery recall, with the Tokyo-based concern reeling back in more than 9 million of the suckers over potential safety concerns.

My take, though, is that this global electronics titan has its game face on and that recent woes are just about fully baked into its stock price. The shares are more than 20% below their 52-week high, having declined by more than 11% during the last three months alone. Against that backdrop, I've opted to add Sony to my Motley Fool CAPS list of stocks that I think will outperform the market over the next year. You can do the same, or, if you think there's still room for the company to fall further, you can rate it "underperform" in CAPS, too.

The Foolish bottom line
If you haven't taken CAPS for a whirl yet, click here to do so -- for free. In a nutshell, CAPS is designed to tap the Fool's community of investors and ferret out the market's best prospects -- and those that are cruising for a proverbial bruising, too.

Establishing a CAPS profile is easy, and once you're up and running with a group of picks, you can watch how your predictions fare relative to those of the CAPS community at large. If enough folks are bullish on Sony, it just might take top honors as the best international stock for 2007.

Go here for the complete list of contenders in our CAPS international-stock tournament.

Shannon Zimmerman runs point on the Fool's Champion Funds newsletter service and co-advises GreenLight. At the time of publication, he didn't own any of the companies mentioned. CNET is a Motley Fool Rule Breakers pick. Microsoft is an Inside Value selection. You can check out the Fool's strict disclosure policy by clicking right here.