Help me out - will a PS3 Slim really change the game?

[binary solo]

Domicinator said:
I can say this much--I frequent a lot of gaming sites, and VGChartz is the one whose users are making the biggest deal out of the Slim. I don't see a lot of talk about it on a lot of the other forums I look at, and I'm starting to wonder if more than just the gaming fanatics (the minority of gamers) even know/care about the Slim.

I'm also starting to see that a 360 price cut could very well negate anything Sony does as far as attempting to close the gap. Don't forget who the holiday shoppers are: parents. These people drive console sales during the shopping season. How many of them do you think really know or care about the PS3 Slim? The 360 Arcade is dirt cheap. The Elite will be a good deal at $299, but I don't think parents will care about that either. They're going to go for price. A $299 Elite or PS3 will pale in comparison to an Arcade model when looking at price.

I don't know....a slim/price cut could close the gap a little bit, but I don't think it's going to make the PS3 sell 8 million units in 4 months. That's stretching it a bit.

There's something in what you say there, but parents who are non-gamers will buy whichever system their kids are most amped about. The kids will be amped about whichever system has the best street cred, and the street cred will be largely driven by the games the kids are most into. A gaming system isn't going to be a surprise present, it'll be a negotiated one. It's possible that parents will look at the $299 (assumed) pricetag and look at the pricetag of the Arcade and Wii and go back to their kid(s) and say "PS3 too expensive, how about a 360 or Wii instead?". If there isn't the PS3 buzz then the kid(s) will shrug and say "sure whatever". But if there is a PS3 buzz then the kid(s) will get all whiny and say it has to be the PS3 and the parents will cave and fork out the extra dough.

It's a well known and well used marketing tool: get kids to whine about wanting a product and the parents will buy it to shut them up, even if the parents were initially against the product, or preferred a different product. Sony needs to get kids to nag their parents for a PS3.

For gaming system purchases this technique works on wives too