There has been a lot of chatter on the big technology and gaming blogs about a slimmer, less-expensive Playstation 3. Things really heated up after Amazon Germany posted a product listing for “PlayStation 3 Konsole slim,” which leaves little mystery as to what it could be. In my experience of seeing early Amazon product listings, they are almost always accurate and usually appear within a few months of an actual product debut. Then things shifted to Japan, where a retailer received a notice that Sony will no longer be refreshing inventory of 80GB PS3’s in Japan after August 9th. This means some sort of refresh is surely coming, because the 80GB PS3 is the only version Sony currently offers to Japanese consumers, aside from a short-lived 160GB Final Fantasy version. Lastly, this all leads to European retailers getting word of an impending €100 price cut on the 80GB console, and the debut of the PS3 Slim at the gamescom expo in Cologne, Germany on August 18th. Amazon has also cut the price on the 160GB PS3 Uncharted bundle by $50.
Phew. Well, unfortunately at this time we here at Sony Insider have little to add to this story, but something is surely coming soon. I’ve never seen so much hype built for something that doesn’t exist..yet. What do you think?
