As some of you will know I have been waiting for the next PS3 price drop (here in Australia) along with the re-inclusion of BC to purchase a PS3.

However with the recent news of a smaller Blu-Ray diode there is the suggestion that not only is Sony not far away from price reductions, but that a slimline PS3 might be on the forseeable horizon as well.  Possible reasons for this happening quite early include the complete destruction of HD DVD and the unexpected (two years ago) need to combat the 360's success and raise PS3 sales.

Given my gaming centre currently generates enough heat to maintain life on Earth once the sun dies, I would very much appreciate a PS3 slim to avoid adding the thermal heater that is the current PS3 to my entertainment center.  I'm looking for opinions as to how far away a slim PS3 is, as it may effect when I purchase a PS3?

2010 probably

In the next 12-18 months at most. Thats why I'm not buying a ps3 at the moment, its obvious that we still are going to see more SKUs and more price cuts in the short term since Sony obviously needs them.

2010 means i'm not waiting. However what I might do is stick it out till Christmas 2008 and see if we have heard anything about it. I would not be entirely surprised to see it used to boost sales in mid-2009.

It's unlikely that the size of the Blu-Ray diode makes the PS3 look as-is ....

It would be nice, if near FFXIII release, But probably later.
It still depend on how fast sony will go to new techprocesses. =)

Historically only very succesful consoles (NES, SNES, PS1, PS2 etc) have gotten a remake, and I'm not sure if the PS3's sales are going to be high enough to warrant the expenses of designing, producing, and marketing a whole new model. New SKUs with more/less/different parts inside happens all the time, but different sized models are pretty rare.

Then again, the PS3 has lots of expensive tech, and making a slim version might actually save money in the end. Feel free to tell me if I'm forgetting something here.

Much of the PS3's size is due to its internal power pack, and the size of this must be decreasing as Sony makes more efficient components. So, they could make an external power brick, decreasing the size of the components, making it very possible for a slim line PS3 to come into play. I expect a new one coming out before the end of 2009.

If they reduced the size of the current playstaion A.K.A make a "slim" version, they would save millions in transport alone. Then there's the cost reduction of the materials used for the surrounding case and a million more factors.

Having a smaller Blu-ray diode however will hardly make an impact at all. It seems many people are under the impression that the blu-ray diode has the size of a refrigerator and making it smaller will provide the key to making a "slim" PS3. That is absolutely not the case, it will hardly make up for a cubic inch in room that will be saved.

Now look at the powersupply, the GPU and CPU and ram. There you can make some real gains in losing size and making more profit. Making a smaller diode just sounds very good in the still ongoing war against HD-dvd that they are stomping into the ground, as far as the PS3 goes it makes no real difference.

All consoles will get new "slim" models because they proven themselves as financial wonders with the DS and recent salesspike of the PSP as prime examples.

EDIT: seems Munkeh111 said the same thing about the powersupply as me while I was typing that. I just wanna make it clear that I said it cooler.

I say it would be a while before we get a smaller version of the playstation 3. In order to create a smaller version they would need to reduce cost dramticly to the point where they make alot of profit of the system itself. The more advanced smaller parts your console has the higher it will cost.

Besides to PS3 is actually smaller than most blu-ray players. If we ever do see a remake, it would be sometime in 2010-2012.