For the past few months we’ve been hearing rumors about a slimmer, and potentially cheaper, version of the PlayStation 3. Alleged images of the console started making the rounds back in May, followed by a cease and desist letter, which ironically gave rumors a bit more credence. Things quieted down for a while, with no mention of the console at E3, but speculation is once again running rampant.

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there's no way there coming out this month, there would have been much more hype about it.

No, Sony doesn't want any hype about it. They don't want people to wait for the slim, they want people to buy the PS3 now to reduce inventory of the full sized PS3. Rumors of this console and price breaks have already hammpered adoption (though it certainly isn't limited to those 2 factors alone). While I too don't believe it will come out this month (much more likely around august-october time frame), it is infact comming. With the ability to produce the components on a smaller fab process than they are using now, Sony can save boat loads of money. I could see it being released around the holiday season in bulk, and perhaps earlier in limited suply. all in all, it is on it's way...

will it cost less? nintendo didnt drop the price of the DS lite compared to the original larger ds.

nothing is guarenteed, especially from sony who believe they are rght to sell hardware that is overpriced, overspecced and difficult to program.

The price will drop just before the new release to help flush out the older models from retail stores. I would say that price drop would happen 1 month before launch to allow for sufficient time to reduce saturation. After that the new model should come out with either the same price as the reduced older model or close to it. I am not cluse to the source to confim these things, but given current market trends and presure from not only users (or potentail adopters of the platform) but also the game companies (activision and others), Sony will have to drop the price to stay relivent. With adoption of Blu-Ray not going as smoothly as sonly would have hoped, the Playstation needs compete on the same level as it's compeditors.

come on sony aren't on the same level as there competitors ,the ps3 is multi-media ,it wouldn't surprise me if the slim version was released at the high end of the price range ,with the fat ps3's going out of production altogether.

The fat PS3's will cease production as they are not economical to produce (they use 90nm fab processes for most of teh chips in it, while 45mn and 55mn fabs are avalible for the majority of the internals).

I only got my PS3 this year, it does not even play PS2 games. I would like to see more games for the system not cheaper hardware,

Think about it, gobbybobby. A lower price for the system would mean more sales. That would promote more game development. "It's a good thing."