It was very predictable that SCE had both a hardware revision with a significantly lower production cost to accommodate a pre-holiday price drop in order to meet their inflated 13m projection.

The leaked shots could have been taken with a grain of salt way back in spring, but when PS3 sales were declining and SCE raised their projections, that was a big fat light bulb clue hinting to all but the most clueless or stubborn that the price was going down by the holidays.

13m still seems inflated, even post $299 price but it's looking like they will be a lot closer than when they announced their projections at $399.

Actually when they announced the 13 million target I almost immediately concluded they need a $100 price cut to come near it... so your allegations are wrong.

Here are some of my posts on that:

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/post.php?id=2360618

http://n.vgchartz.com/forum/post.php?id=2154846

My predictions prior to the announcement of the 13 million figure were wrong, but that was very long ago (when Sony was still promising profitability to investors).

Sony stated the 13million figure at the start of there fiscal year conference call in about April. It was obvious in April that there would be a pricecut. 13 million has never seemed inflated in light of a pricecut you'l see.

Actually, I think PS3's more likely to hit it's )ambitious) projections than PSP or Wii.