like people have said, could just be clearing left over stock, Who's going to want the fat ones when the slim is confirmed unless the fat one's are at a good price

299 euros/$299 is just a fire sale price to clear out old PS3 models. PS3 slim unchanged in price. Is the most likely scenario. No need for Sony to bleed more losses on PS3 hardware.

But if the slim's production cost is 252$, and they sell it at 300$, how do they lose money?

a 299 euro ps3 will see massive sales in EU

wonder if the ps3 will go to 299$ in NA though

sO THE TRUE PLAYSTAYION LAUNCH IS UPON US

english dood...english..

Good question, although I think the boost would be bigger in EU than in NA.   So the cut there makes sense,  but I still dont beleive this,  especially with GDC right around the corner.

IDK in Spain, but here in Italy we are in the final days of Summer clearance sales, so, whatever the next PS3 pricing, if Sony will release new SKU's, fat or slim, whichever, it would make sense to try to empty stocks.

It depends on how that $252 is calculated: the old estimates we saw in the past, like the ~$450 in October 2008 included warehousing, shipping and retailer profit, if the current $252 includes only production and, maybe, warehousing and shipping, you must take into account that retailers will want a bigger than $48 profit on a $300 retail price, so Sony would initially lose some tens $ per unit. Obviously, when production is at full capacity, Slim will give more savings than the normal evolution of Fat production.

I could see them wanting to separate the EU price drop from a NA one if the NA PS3 is going to be sold for less than in EU.