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!)

yeah it improve sony console sales alot, it will be deadly with a price cut

Im more interested in a price cut than a slim.

If it's $300 then yeah, you can expect it to steal some of MS/Nintendo's thunder for a while. If it's $400, well.....that's just plain stupid.

hardware redesigns can be game changers. Look at the psp and the ds. Before the lite came out the psp was killing the ds (at least in america, not sure about ww). However, after lite came out the psp was never able to recapture it's momentum, even after it's own redesigns.

It really boils down to what the slim is going to change about the ps3. Is it going to be an improvement? or is it going to take features away? Sony's past hardware redesigns seem to be mostly about saving money on manufacturing cost, not so much driving sales. I'm thinking the ps3 slim is going to be the same IMO.

PSP managed to own japan (highest selling game) and if remenber correctly highest selling 2008 in japn last year because of the psp 2000-3000 and monster hunter.

i can see ps3 doing the same for europe with GT5 and japan with FF13

If the Slim were to be launched alongside a price cut, it might cause sales to go up a bit for a few weeks. But since there will be no price cut -it would go against the whole point of the Slim- there will be very little uptick: a few points from technophiles trading up to the latest and greatest, and that'll be it. It won't shake the market, it won't save the PS3, and it won't really be anything special at all.

it's really more about the price cut than the slim.

I do a lot of traveling and I happen to get to talk to many different types of people about games. Most are wanting a ps3 but are waiting for a price cut. So if the slim is real and its a 299.99, I think a lot of people will be jumping on the sony bandwagon.

PS3 Slim will change nothing...

PS3 price cut has lots of potential...

I really don't know why Sony would do both... They should save slim for a future date.