Last time I checked I was "some body"... I even have a name and a place I live with a job that I earn money at... fucking idiot.  I already posted in the Sony forums the link to the site that revealed the two guys who faked the whole thing.  Now I will go so far to say it may be a hoax of a hoax, but that's stretching it.

edit:  For your reading enjoyment... and these two knuckleheads were nobodys to... idiot

The "stolen" pictures of a supposed PS3 Slim have been seen all around the world, you've seen them on Ultimate PS3. After we received threats following the publication of these pics, our staff has investigated and reveals the trickery. Read all the details in this exclusive news, as we've interviewed one of the creators of this fake PS3 Slim.

All of this story has been related with emails and MSN but the whole story seems true.

2 weeks ago, we presented the "stolen" pictures of a PS3 Slim still wondering about the truth of them - even though it is quite clear that Sony is now working on it.

- Threats received by e-mail

A few days later, we received by mail a letter of a supposed Chinese Lawyers firm located in Taïwan, threatening us of legal actions - such as most of the websites that shown these pictures have received. Some have been scared and immediately removed the pics, but too much things let us tought that all this was hugely fake.

(click on the picture to enlarge)

Quite a funny thing, though : this has been sent from a mailbox named sexybutterfly... By a guy called Ryan Hor (that's a nickname).

- Too many clues leading to a fake

So, we took these informations one by one. Firstly, we asked about this strange mailbox : we've been told that due to the emergency he had to send it from his personal mailbox.
Then we asked for an official contact in France, as Chinese Lawyers are not supposed to intend legal actions in France.

He gave us the name of a French debt collection firm that had just nothing to do with the questions of industrial property that was, by the way, the reason why we've had been threatened.

Overmore, Li Mo & Associates is juste a private University but has nothing to do with a lawyers firm.

- Our answer that reveals the fake

We answered him taking one by one each problem, and asking him to send copies of our mails to the french firm. We also took the engagement to retire the pictures if Sony sent us an official demand.
Facing so much incoherences, our contact told us the truth : all of this is fake, and the aim of it was to sell at the highest possible price the false PS3 slim.  Our Relationship Director obtained an interview with Ryan Hor where he revealed everything about the story.

- Who are they ?

You already know them : they're the same team that created the famous countdown to the launching of the Playstation Home. Actually, they're about 10 people from China and some of them spent a few time living in France.

Two of them are the brain : Ryan Hor and Limo Law (both use nicknames to stay anonymous) are in charge of the creation of the fakes, and the other spread the rumor worldwide.

- What is their goal ?

Money, of course. They wanted to sell their fake PS3 Slim on eBay at the best possible price - such as they wanted to do it with the domain name of the Playstation Home countdown. They told us that even though it could only be a few thousand dollars, it's quite a lot of money in China.

So they created the first hype with the pictures, and wanted it to grow with the threats of legal actions - so it could have looked a bit more official and increase the price of their false PS3 Slim.

- How did they made it ?

Both of them work in Chinese factories and used their infrastructures to have the "PS3 factory like" pictures, and used the tools of the factories to build the fake PS3.
By the way, they told us the hardest thing to do was to introduce a camera and take the pictures into the factory without being caught.

Then they made a motherboard on the basis of an old Atari console, and managed to make it work on a TV with RCA cables. So this was just a PS3 that could play old fashioned Atari games. Total cost : about 280$.

- Why did they accept to reveal us all the story ?

The first hype of the pictures worked very well, but the second (supposed to be more official) was too fragile to make the story believable. Too much incoherences had the opposite effect than expected, their story was not so true anymore, and their fake PS3 Slim couldn't be sold as much expensive as they wanted to...

So the only thing they could rely on was their ego, and we have to admit it was a nice try !

http://www.ultimateps3.fr/news-ps3-2493-exclusive-ups3-ps3-slim-pictures-are-fake.html

who said anything about selling the ps3 for a loss? If they could lower production costs by 500 dollars in 2 years by just taking BC chips out and shrinking the others im fairly optimistic that shrinking the RSX and using a smaller chasis, fan, power supply, and mobo along with shipping costs being lowered (a cost they have not saved yet) Ithey'll still be able to profit. if not at least break even allowing accessories and software bring profit.

If the yen also goes back to the normal '08 numbers then it would offset a good deal of the drop. It would be like Sony dropping the price 100 dollars to increase it by 50

So have people predictions changed since.... well..... the PS3 Slim wasn't announced??

Or are we expecting an announcement in a couple more days?

Well you see the thing is that Sony did not think it would be wise to announce a Slim PS3 which is to come in September as it would reduce PS3 sales now since everyone would just wait for the slim.

so...........big increase in hardware sales WHEN the PS3 Slim releases holiday 2009.