But see, Sony is desperate.  Microsoft is not.  I can't see MS forgoing quite a bit of profit just for fear of Sony winning one holiday season.  They didn't bother much in 07, and I don't see why the would now.   In 07, they did a 12.5% price drop (6% in the case of the Core, though they changed it to the Arcade around that time, iirc), and hoped Halo 3 would hold the fort.  They waited to substantially change the price when they were in a better position to do so, and when they truly needed to do so, a year later.

Now, the 360 is performing better than ever.  MS is in a rather comfy position, and I don't think they'll worry too much about one holiday season given how much money the 360 is probably bringing in at the moment, and could bring in over that period.  Sony is in catch up mode.  MS knows this, and realize that they have plenty of time to react to Sony's moves as a result.  If Sony performs so spectactularly this holiday season that they need to worry about it, they'll just do something big for holiday 2010.  Even if the ps3 performs amazingly well this holiday, MS will still be in the lead by millions.

I don't thing we'll see the 360 Pro dip below $250 this year, if it goes that low.  Arcade may drop to $179.

1. A PS3 Slim would allow for them to decrease production costs and drop the price. That is called business and not desperation. PS2 slim released something like 4 years after the original, PSP 3 years and not sure about PS1. The time has come for a Slim PS3 desperation or not. Now I know you are not going to say PS2 and PS1 going slim was a sign of desperation because that would be nothing short of retarded.

2. No idea what world you live in but the console is still $400, people can spout all the shit they want but fact of the matter is that $400 for a console is steep and they will not bite. $300 PS3 however it happened would sell more consoles, desperation is dropping the price of a console so that it is not the same as the competition as all one has going for it is saying "we're cheaper". No shit I'm talking about the 360. Was the PS3 not outselling the 360 before the price cut? PS3 was still more expensive then but the gap was much smaller. Hah.

3. Don't see where you are going with this as the thread is about PS3 Slim. It would reduce production costs of the console and allow for a price reduction to occur.

I don't know how this site was when the PS3 is outselling the 360 as I joined once the 360 has cut price. I assume if PS3 starts outselling 360 again it will be "360 is doomed to third place" correct? I assume it is universally accepted that IF yes IF the 360 and PS3 were the same price the PS3 would wipe the floor with 360. All I hear is "360 is cheaper so people will go for the cheaper option" thus it seems people are relying on people being cheap asses such as me renting games.

Halo 3 did carry Microsoft through the 07 holiday season, and the price differential helped them. The PS3 barely made any ground inspite of the massive price cut, such is the value of that series. They didn't need to act then. Microsoft is stronger during the holiday season with the lower price of their console and greater U.S. sales relative to Europe, Sony is stronger during the year. They cannot afford to lose a holiday season by any great margin because they would then lose the normal weeks in the follow year by quite a substantial margin as well. Furthermore they have more incentive to increase their userbase substantially, especially relative to Sony's PS3 because Xbox Live is quite the money spinner for them and they can afford the hardware losses short term for long term gains.

The Xbox 360 cannot sustain last years great holiday feats quite likely without a price drop. Furthermore its a perfect opportunity to take advantage of a Sony price drop by forcing them to take a bigger hit from the drop by performing one of their own so the PS3's sales would not rise as quickly as Sony would expect and damaging their overall margins to enforce a status quo where Microsoft can both profit and increase the distance between the two consoles.

I haven't read this thread (I'm supposed to be working), but if this is true, what features are being cut out?

You are overlooking the fact the market has changed. This isn't 2002 anymore, in 2009 the game to own is Wii Sports.

The closest sibling to t he ps3 in the market is the 360 and as powerful as Halo 3 is it didn't do that much. Remember Halo 3 was released shortly after a pricecut as well.

they have to make it look good though

Ummm....hate to break it to you, but that is Chinese. I'm pretty decent at Japanese myself and I can only recognize some of the characters, but the writing is obviously not Japanese. Maybe you should ask one of your JP friends to try and read it. They might be able to figure out what it means(trying to decipher the Chinese Kanji), but they will tell you that it is not Japanese.

(Also the pictures came from a Chinese website, levelup.cn as you can see on the stamp)

I have to laugh at some of you. You guys seem to forget that only a few months ago before the 360 price drop that the PS3 was signifigantly outselling the 360 in Europe. running equal in the states and winning slimly in japan on a weekly basis. A slim at $300 would bring the price gap back to that point again, but in Japan the slimline factor mixed with FF13 would create a major boost in that country. I know 360 fans want to believe that the sales numbers are about the 360 being in demand, but the truth is it's about a major price gap. Also we don't exactly know where the Sony losses fall. they coald be due to shipping, they couyld be due to storage, they could be due to the designing of this slim model. Truth is we do not know how much Sony looses on the production cost of the PS3. We also do not know truly how much added little stuff that could be removed in a slim would cut costs. If we were experts we would be running these companies.

There is a lot of arrogance in your posts, which is unnecessary.

If Sony releases a slim PS3 at a 299, that would be amazing. Everyone would go out and buy one.

However, if Microsoft released a slim 360 at 99 dollars, everyone would go out and buy that instead.

These are rumors. Like MGS4. You remember that one? The one which claimed that the best PS3 exclusive would be released on the Xbox 360 with more content?

The truth is, until this is confirmed, it's all hope. You hope it happens. Some hope it doesn't. Honestly, who cares about the hope of biased fans? I certainly don't.

As for your assertion that FFXIII could somehow "swing" the console war in Sony's favor. It's just Japan. You think everyone who buys a copy of XIII will buy a PS3 to go with it?

Why don't you wait for your rumor to be officially confirmed because you start gloating, and ironically degrading other fanboys.

Why would you laugh at someone's opinion? Isn't that a tad passive agressive.

THEN is not NOW. Brand recognition and acceptance changes with time. Price is not always the absolute decider. By the time Gamecube hit 99 dollars, its brand had already been tarnished enough for it not to matter. You can't base sales trends on such simple deductions.

The whole point of the "Slim" design is to remarket the PS3 as a "new and better version" most notably in the states, where its brand, frankly, sucks.

Console redesigns, like color changes, are marketing schemes. They can give a console a fresh start, like the DS-Lite, or they can reup sales by increasing functionality and destroying stigma, like the PS2 slim. A 360 redesign could derail the RRoD argument, for instance.

In the case of the PS3, the redesign wouldn't be aimed at destroying a faulty hardware stigma or increasing functionality. It would be aimed at destroying the poor brand acceptance and price stigma surrounding the PS3, worldwide. It would be nothing short of a relaunch of the console.