The $299 PS3 was the new slim model.  The press release was done August 18, 2009 with the official release of the system to be two weeks later when it was to become available in stores on September 1, 2009, in North America, Europe/ PAL territories and Asian countries and regions.  But some retailers such as Amazon.com, Best Buy and GameStop started to sell the PS3 slim one week earlier on August 25, 2009 in North America.

edit: you're right, the existing 80GB PS3 model was also reduced on the same day as the press release (August 18, 2009)

It looks like ps4 will be big.

in terms of fw though,is at its normal days,if you look it carefully!We're able to say that the spetacular and great games EXPLORERS OF TIME/DARKNESS perfomance was an anomaly(maybe only for the fw,because if we sum up red/blue rescue team LTD sales we get the same total with explorers darkness/time)...

What we should care about is the LTD,if Pokemon super mystery dungeon doesn't end with 700k+,then yes the series isn't in it's glory days(if you split up darkness and time  ltd you get 775K for each,blue/red rescue team are at 767k and 715k,so probably the 700k is the standard for the series,but both the aforementioned paradigms,pertain to a couple of two versions,now we have a game sequal which is a single sku,and the 400k might be the standard for them,taking into account the sister game to Pokemon explorers time/darkness,PMD OF 'SKY and gates to infinity numbers...)

Is MGSV doing well would you guys say?

At the same time, you have to hold series to higher standards due to the nature of their appeal and expectations. I don't really think Mystery Dungeon flopped hard, but it definitely didn't do great.

What does that mean? The Mystery Dungeon series is fairly niche, and the reason the previous games sold as well as they did was directly because of Pokemon. As the Pokemon games have declined over the years, so has the Mystery Dungeon spinoffs, so there's a direct correlation. The fact that SMD has a chance at outselling previous entries is good news in itself.

And we don't know the expectations of Nintendo since we don't have sold-through numbers yet. I'm not saying the game did great, but it certainly did not flop. I would say it performed well (in fact, that's what I said in my original post).

It's not hidden meaning. Mystery Dungeon gets compared to previous games in its series. It was in response to your comment about not knowing what to call other titles if it flopped. For example, Monster Hunter 5 doing 2 million in Japan would be a gigantic flop, because you would at expect at least double that from a MH title.

Maybe if Monster Hunter went from 4m directly to 2m with the next game, but that's not the case with PSMD. It's directly in line with current expectations, going back to 2009.

This would be like crucifying the next mainline Pokemon game for not selling 20m because some of its predecessors did, even though the current standard is in the 10-15m range. It's an outdated mindset.

Splatoon still selling well
i guess they really liked the hentai there in japan

Now this is interesting. Depending on approach I'd say the sales are both, OK and bad.

Bad Sales

Looking at the standard of old games, Super Mystery Dungeon is pretty far from it. I think Explorers of Sky should not be used as a standalone comparison but clumped together with Explorers of Time /Darkness. This could be a bad example but I'd treat it like SSF4, MH4U, YW: Shinuchi, etc....

How about Gates to Infinity? If it is treated as an anomaly and a flop then Super Mystery Dungeon must be treated the same. When you take into consideration that 3DS install base is more than double now, you'd expect Super Mystery Dungeon to sell a bit better.

OK Sales

The whole traditional gaming climate has changed dramatically since those old days. Inside the "platform" itself, since Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, Monster Hunter has infiltrated and Yokai Watch has been established and these two together have weakened the Pokemon brand as number one on Nintendo handhelds. Especially Yokai Watch with recent YW: Busters must be eating sales directly with its massive sales and very good legs. Animal Crossing spin-off also released recently, now over 1 million sales. Dragon Quest VIII has had big sales too. Is there room for another big FW seller in such a short timespan? Now Super Mystery Dungeon FW is not a disaster but it will need good legs or it will indeed be a flop. I'd say 500k would be reasonable minimum for starters.