I hope the PS3 goes below $199, I already am on record that I will buy one at $130 - 150, and there are a few more games I would like to play.

OT: Too early, too late, doesn't really matter. It happened when Sony needed it to.

You will either be waiting till 2013+ or buying used

I'm willing to wait until 2012, after that there may be an HD Nintendo console and I may be stuck on that.  Also, I won't buy a used game console again, had a really bad experience with that.

I don't think it did.  (I'll check.)

And again, why should the Core/Arcade be able to drop LOWER than the PS2 when it cost MORE to produce (I'm sure their initial loss-leader cost was more than the PS2 at the same price) and had gigantic hardware design flaws to overcome?  

Wikipedia does not refute my recollection that the 512MB memory card did not at that time exist, and that there was a 64 MB sold separately at $40.  That's the reason I told everyone even looking in the general direction of a 360 not to buy the Core.  (Core + HDD = Premium with corded controller.)

@Crashdown: It happened when Sony could do it. As i said earlier, Sony have needed it for 3 years.

I didn't have time read all of the posts but my feeling about this is coloured by the same factor that influences my feelings about the Wii price cut. "It's easier to maintain momentum than regain it."

Sure Sony could have held off on the slim until the end of the financial year, or Nintendo the Wii price cut, but by that time sales might have slipped too low to be resuscitated and reignited respectively.

Furthermore, even though I am not currently in the market for a PS3, having just released one of the must have games this generation (U2) the PS3 is now looking much more attractive to me than it did a few months ago, and I'm not the only one.

i think the ps3 slim came out sooner than sony had originaly wanted it too. but it also needed the sales boost like it got to reaffirm its ps brand as being very strong, which it certainly has proven too be. i hope it doesnt get any smaller with another redesign because if it does i think sony might do want they did with the ps2 and its redesign and that is take away the abilty to get the hdd. and their fore u will be stuck with what ever hdd they sell the system with.

Sony was desperate, and had they not launched Slim for this holiday season, they would have seen their WW numbers drop even further behind 360 and Wii this holiday season. Even with the price cut for the PS3, and the great numbers to date, a simple fact remains…It cost MORE to develop software for the PS3 over the 360 and Wii…time and people equals a greater resource load on the bottom-line, so every publisher/developer has to fact that in.

The articles outlining Japanese developers pretty much summed it up, M$ provided some seed funding to help with start-up cost, and Sony comes along and demands extras for free…sure that works with Japanese developers, and for ONLY for there Japanese market games. Looking at something like Lost Planet 2, The 360 version is going to substantially outsell the PS3 version, imho. It doesn’t matter that the 360 outnumbers PS3, DEVELOPERS STILL HAVE TO SPEND MORE MONEY TO MAKE PS3 GAMES…that’s the bottom-line business decision.

PS3 Slim looks to be a great piece of hardware, and it provided a boost to PS brand, but M$ and Nintendo are sitting back and now have an opportunity to respond. We’ve heard that their will be no radical redesign 360 on the horizon, but we all know that’s a bluff to not have buyers long-eyeing that future console. I honestly believe we will see a redesign (even if only internally) 360 in 2 iterations. An updated arcade with version, with perhaps 4-8 GB of internal memory, and a pro model with 200+GB of memory will probably be the 2 main iterations. Chances are, we might see a integrated Natal box as the premium model as well. The chipset of course will be shrunk, but is it going to be 45 or 32 is the question…either one would radically reduce cost, but I think if the 32nm is ready we will see it. As for the Wii, I think Nintendo is going to roll out an HD without a doubt…It’s still going to be subpar compared to PS3 and 360, but it’s going to be much better than the current Wii…and we might even see better utilization of internal memory. Sony is kinda locked into the Slim for at least a couple of years, which means next holiday season is going to be another challenge for it, imho.

Hmmm... maybe this memory card with 512mb capacity did not start till after the rebranding as an "Arcade".  It's been too long