Lower Manufacturing Costs + Lower Retail Price + Smaller Size + Less Heat + More Sales + ??? = Profit!

No, it's because of the price. The majority of gamers don't know what E3 is, and a good 90% have certainly never watched one.

Why don't you go do a survey of people who don't own PS3s, and see how many people say it's because of price, and how many say it's because the system launched at $600 three years ago.

     It's not because of price.  It's because the PS3 isn't perceived tohave the big games that have been released so far this gen like Gears and Halo.  However, if the PS3 had had a lower launch price, then Gears wouldn't have attracted such a faithful and vocal audience at its release.

Gears is a new IP, and Halo may have been big, but GT and GTA were bigger. It was price. It was always price.

It's not consumer perception any more, that ended when good games started to come to the system in late 2007.

It is about price. The games argument was thrown out a long time ago.

Pre Sept pricecut last year, the PS3 outsold the X360 by 1.5 mill at $399. After the pricecut sales boomed for the 360 and have remained moderately strong since.

Similarly, the pricecut for the PS3 will see a strong surge for a couple of months and then settle into a higher level again. I'm thinking probably a gap around pre-Sept 2008 figures taking out individual game surges.

It won't change 2nd place, but it will wrestle momentum away from MS - and when you're both over 20mill install base, thats all that matters.

It's uglyness may be a turn off for some people. But I won't care if it lowers the price, as I might buy one then.

It's all about price. It may make things get better for Sony but it won't change the fact that wii is selling bigger than ps3. I might be wrong, but i don't think we'll see ps3 being boosted to 1st place.

People only think Slim will have a impact because it's going to cut its price.

Isn't that obvious?

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.