The redesign and the pricecut happened after the E3 @ gamescom in Germany.

And it remains to be seen how a Xbox 360 slim with Natal a $50 pricecut and a Halo-launch will work out.

no, Sonys end. They would be broke.

OT: Nothing will kill the PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii. Except MS, Sony or Nintendo themselves.

360 ressurection????

you don't use blu-ray!?!?

is it dead now?

only in japan lol  :P

Since the 360 and PS3 were released, there has been consistent hardware revisions. Historically, all consoles get cheaper to make as they progress in time from their launch. We look at the PS3 Slim as a watershed moment for the PS3 but that's because it looked so different. How many revisions were there before the PS3 Slim? Maybe 6 or so? There is even another Slim revision on the horizon. The cost savings generally comes with Die shrinks, etc. Sony was able to pull off a marketing exercise when they released the slim but at the same time perform a more than "normal" cost saving version of the PS3. At the end of the day there were minor audio enhancements, Bravia sync support, and maybe some other minor features. The PS3 Slim has to adhere to the same ridged standards for gaming and general use. The SKU is essentially a revision in a revised slim form factor.

The 360 has had about 4 motherboard revisions since release. A revised form factor is also a logical progression and will also result in a cost saving for production. If marketed correctly, it should result in a boost of sales assuming there is an accompanying price drop. I think it is the price drop that drives the sales and it is the revised "form factor" that just makes it easier to advertise that price drop, because it looks so different.

I think that since the PS3 slim was released, PS3 sales increased notably more due to the price drop at that same point in time, and because of the more consistent release of quality games for the system from roughly the time the Slim was released. The Slim, being so different in looks, marketed itself. Tech sites basically gave it free advertising. It was an easy thing to market.

Conclusion: Cost cutting is continuous, form factors are a one off during a gen cycle. Passing those price cuts to consumers is continuous and that it's just a tug-of-war. Sony will no doubt, at some point in time, again have a price cut to it's advantage.

So no, form factor hardware revisions that pass on costs to the consumer do not spell the death of the competition by any means, as each console has it's cycle.

what?

It was shown during sonys press conference at e3 right?

Oh wow you're right!

Anyhoo, It is hard to predict what any of that will do. Halo will sell a bunch of copies, but it's not Halo 4, 50$ cut at an already more than affordable price, slim isn't much of a difference...Natal is the key to all of this. It will be interesting to see what happens, but it's not like that collection of things is a powerhouse, it's just a collection of things.

Didn't ppl say the same thing IF sony cuts ps3 price to $299 last year?

im talking about the wifi and blue-tooth on ps3...plus since I bought Dark Knight I havent really been watching blu-ray movies as much since the redbox were  I rent my movies still dont carry them, so I just watch hd dvd's on my 360

plus I bought the rechargable battery pack fon 360 for only $20

I mostly just play games on a Gaming Console