What Sony really needs is compelling, exclusive software that people want to buy. (For example, the arrival of Gran Turismo.) Everything else can only provide a short-term boost to hardware sales at best. Yes, a cheaper price would help sales. Yes, a slim model will help as well. But their effect would be fairly minimal in the long term. The video game market is driven by software - it's always about software - and having "killer" games that people want to buy is what will do the most to drive PS3 hardware sales. Just look at Japan for evidence, where a run of strong software earlier this year pushed PS3 sales temporarily past the Wii.
For the record, I think that everyone here is giving way too much credit to this whole Slim thing. Having a smaller, thinner model will do little to drive demand on its own. (Yeah, the PS2 slim sold well - because everyone already wanted a PS2!)
End of 2008 totals: Wii 42m, 360 24m, PS3 18.5m (made Jan. 4, 2008)
