There are no system-sellers anymore. For some reason, this generation just doesn't work that way. Even the mighty Halo 3 didn't cause more than a momentary blip in the 360's sales, and if Halo can't do it ain't no one can do it.

I suspect that this comes from this generation's tendency to view game consoles as "investments," something nobody bothered to do in the past. People don't wait for their favorite games before buying consoles anymore; they buy them as soon as they can (or as soon as they become interested), and tide themselves over with other games until then. This is great for early sales, but it means that system-sellers no longer work right, because they sell most of the consoles they're going to sell long before the game is ever released.

But what I really don't understand is why should people buy a PS3 slim?
If someone wants a PS3 he buys it no matter if there is a slim version or not.
That is what I think...!

I'm going to go a different route to most people and tell you that it costs about 5 times the amount of money to attract a new consumer than it does to retain a current one.

Nintendo need to ensure that people who have bought a Wii see that it provides value for it's entire lifetime. The more customer they make happy, the more that will return to them. Brand loyalty is a powerful thing.

They basically just add value to the system.. If people hear all these good things about Mario Galaxy and then see that Galaxy 2 is coming out, even better than the original, then they might decide that now is the right time to buy a Wii. If people see that Wii Fit has been replaced by Wii Fit Plus and it has more activities and more features, then the people who were interested may actually decide to buy it because of the initial hype and then following word of mouth.

It's also the fact that Nintendo are about the games and they let their teams be creative and if they feel there is room for a sequel then they won't stop them.

Last thing I wanna say is that Twilight Princess was a title made in Nintendo's older value framework. This Zelda will be designed in the newer value framework which seems to be accessibility, fun and intuitive and engaging controls before everything else. They have always focused on the experience but this one will focus more on being easy to pick up and play but hard to master, much like Mario Kart Wii.

the most common reason is that the more better games come out the more it is worth buying a console.

Most people don't buy consoles for 1-2 games but if you get 10-20 good games (that they think are good) out, they will invest in a system.

The current PS3 is a behemoth right now - takes up almost an entire shelf on my entertainment centre on its own.  Having it take up less space would attract a fair amount of people wh owant one but are put off by the size--especially women.  Also, the fact that they have refined the processes enough that they can make the chips smaller generally means that manufacturing costs have come down, meaning it would be less expensive.

I think the price cut will have a much bigger impact than the fact that it will be smaller.

Wow you are crazy you clearly havent watched the wii progress, its obvious ps3 and xbox360 have failed in many things, as you just said Halo doesnt boost the sales of the hardwared that much, the wii is another history, wii sports, mario galaxy, mario kart, wii fit, and more recently wii sport resort and monster hunter 3 on japan, they all have boosted the wii sales for weeks its surprising you cant notice something so obvious while being on a game charting page

PD: Check Malstrom´s blog for more info i swear he can explan everything

EDIT: I might get the PS3 both for the price reduction and size reduction, the ps3 was bigger that the average computer, 3 times bigger than a laptop, 6 times bigger than the wii, 10 times bigger than my hand, 2 times more expensive than the wii, and it didnt had Wii Sports :(, but if i get it next year it will be like 300$ with MGS4, RE5, SF4, GT5 it will be awesome!