Cologne, Germany – Yet another highly rumored and anticipated reveal has come to pass, with Sony officially announcing both the new, Slim SKU of the Playstation 3 line, and a price cut on existing models. Despite the leak of the basic announcement coming less than a day before, the specifics on both announcements were revealed at the end of Sony’s press conference at this year’s GamesCom from the mouth of head honcho Kaz Hirai. The new model Playstation 3 is 32% smaller than the console’s initial launch size, and consumes 34% less power, coming equipped with supposedly all the features of its full-sized cousin, in addition to a standard 120gb HDD. Most important, however, is the reduced price of $299, which will be mirrored by the rumored price drop of existing models currently available in retail, effective tomorrow. The slim model will be making its way onto retail shelves itself by the first week of September, although exact dates will vary based on the country. Release dates on popular online retailers like Kmart and Sears’ respective sites, however, place the launch date as soon as August 24th.
Sony Computer Entertainment America head Jack Tretton also took some time out to make a personal announcement video detailing the launch and price cut, which is also viewable below.
Additional reporting by Kipp Pietrantonio
I still love my PS3 Fatty, but I’m glad this is coming out!
I like my monolith, thank you very much. But good news nonetheless.
^I love mine too, the shiny finish is sleak looking. I bought mine just over 2 weeks ago, and well, I am happy with it. It is good that they are droping the price, maybe people will have less stigma about buying the console now.
Now the big question is:
PS2 Backwards Compatibility?
If it has it, I’m selling my PS3 as soon as I can get my hands on the new one. If not, I’ll live.
I’m probably going to buy one, even though I have a Phat already.
I think this looks nothing like a ps3, also did the “Touch Buttons” get replaced by real buttons? I’ll stick with my Ps3 Husky