In Japan, the slimness will probably have an affect.

Rest of the World - the price cut will really only do anything.

Its not the hardware, its the size. It is smaller, which means it will cost Sony less to make, which means the extremely wanted PRICE CUT that has been holding the sales back.

There's something in what you say there, but parents who are non-gamers will buy whichever system their kids are most amped about. The kids will be amped about whichever system has the best street cred, and the street cred will be largely driven by the games the kids are most into. A gaming system isn't going to be a surprise present, it'll be a negotiated one. It's possible that parents will look at the $299 (assumed) pricetag and look at the pricetag of the Arcade and Wii and go back to their kid(s) and say "PS3 too expensive, how about a 360 or Wii instead?". If there isn't the PS3 buzz then the kid(s) will shrug and say "sure whatever". But if there is a PS3 buzz then the kid(s) will get all whiny and say it has to be the PS3 and the parents will cave and fork out the extra dough.

It's a well known and well used marketing tool: get kids to whine about wanting a product and the parents will buy it to shut them up, even if the parents were initially against the product, or preferred a different product. Sony needs to get kids to nag their parents for a PS3.

For gaming system purchases this technique works on wives too

Most will say no.

I will say yes, things will change and for the better, I will also go as far as saying that it may just even out sell the wii.

As the 360 and PS3 close their price gap between themselves and the wii, and add their own motion controls, the wii will become more redundant as time goes on.

HD graphics + motion controls = the casuals being won over. As HDtv uptake increases, most which will be LCD, owners will start noticing that the wii looks crap on their new set at which point these owners may start considering one of the HD consoles especially if they've seen them running, add to that the fact that all 3rd party motion controlled games will at that point be multiplatfor and you have one dime future for the wii.
All in all I see the wii nose diving ...I know most will disagree but I do foresee this happening, and no matter what new peripheral Nintendo release to try get people...it will have little to no effect as time go on.

Also, the PS3/360 already have more features and better services than the wii, so when they both hit the sweet spot they'll start selling even better, at this stage not even a price cut can save the wii, cuz for a little extra you get so much more from the HD twins, just remember that these casuals may have no affinity to Nintendo type games, so the zelda and Mario's won't have any effect on these casuals for the most part....and yes there are people who don't like or are no interested in these games despite how hard it is for some to believe, so with no affinity to Nintendo games the casuals are free to bounce around between consoles as long as the software is their that appeal to them, so if they can afford the 360 or PS3, it has the motion controls, plus all these other nifty features and services the wii doesn't, then I see them going over to the PS3 or 360.

In the last years of this console generation, the fight will come down to the PS3 and 360, but in the end the PS3 will win by a small margin, because when the PS3 and 360 are priced the same, the PS3 simply comes packed with more value, BD player capabilities, free online and such, and I know people will say that Live will always be better, and I don't dispute that, but when some one who doesn't own either console, say because they either didn't buy a console at all, or have owned a wii and wants to upgrade, then all they'll see is a free online service vs one that has a paid service, they'll most likely choose the free one...why...because free in any language is enticing to anyone.

This is what I predict on how the PS3 Slim will change the game.

I've said this before, and will say it again, this generation is unpredictable despite how predictable things seem.

Who would have predicted that the wii would have taken off with the casuals, despite the hardcore forum goers mocking the name before it launched, who would have predicted the 360 losing it's 1 year lead to the wii, who would have predicted that the PS3 would continue to sell very close to the 360 on a weekly basis despite costing double, during an economic crisis, and having inferior multiplatform games for the 1st year and a half of it's life.....but they happened, and because of this I predicted what I have, so take this as you will.

My 2 cents ^_^

the price is the main thing

also they have a chance to rebrand ps3 & in a way "relaunch" it

What's not to like about the slim? You save a lot of space for your entertainment center. It's priceless.

Yes, Slim changed the game. It's a huge difference maker.

Sony has now pretty much stomped Microsoft this generation before even offically announcing the $299 Slim yet.

X360 is third place this generation, it's already settled. All because of the $299 PS3 Slim.
(sadly, because I'm one of the few Xbox fans on this site)

You can quote me on this.

I hope that's sarcasm.

One thing you forget. It's about the games. Not the motion. So i don't think it'll have too much effect this late in the cycle.

For 250 euro's it will change everything