THE PS3 DIET!

Ah, good ole' predictable Sony. I just love how every secret you try to keep never works out.

Yes, this post is about the recent PS3 rumors. There are tons of things going around about Sony's future plans. Rest assured, I have my own thoughts on the matter. Many actions done by Sony and done by others have led to speculation that the PS3 will get a redesign, dubbed the PS3 "Slim", much like the PS2 did. Let me lay the groundwork...

This all began when photos on a Thailand manufacturing company revealed what seemed to be a slimmer version of the Playstation 3. The photo came with a description that this new console would be a redesign of the current PS3, and that it was currently in mass production. Soon the internet was ablaze from these pictures of a slim PS3 and new packaging. After a week on the website, a cease and desist letter was given to the website, threatening further legal action if the pictures were not removed immediately. Although this letter was from a private firm and not Sony themselves, just the act of a desist letter made the public suspicious of Sony's actions.

Soon after, game blog Kotaku cited that they had had a conversation with an employee at GameStop who spoke to a "connection" in Sony. The employee stated that this "connection" was an executive at Sony, and when asked about the PS3 Slim photos, the man supposedly stated something along the lines of "Wow. I am surprised the photos came out that early." The executive realized that this apparently was not the smartest thing to say, and dodged away from the issue in the conversation. The PS3 Slim rumors were all but confirmed in most minds now.

Unfortunately, E3 would stop the rumor mill for a while, due to the shift in attention to the convention. Sony dodged any questions of a PS3 Slim, and focused on other things. One thing to note is that Sony did not drop the price of the PS3 as many analysts predicted.

Only till a month and a half ago did the rumors begin to flare up again. A group of people apparently in Thailand took a video of a supposed PS3 Slim in a market in Thailand, and posted it to Youtube. The video is very grainy and unfocused, but it does show the men holding the supposed PS3 Slim and detailing its qualities. This video was basically proven to be fake, as many analysts site the market as a black market in Thailand known for its keen ability to fake goods. Although this was fake, attention was back on Sony.

And then, Amazon decided to contribute. A supposed PS3 Slim was on sale on Amazon last week, with a picture that looked just like the Thailand pictures. Purchase was not available, and the picture was found to be a fake made by a user. Amazon also dropped the price of the PS3 Uncharted bundle to $399.

With GAMEScom in Germany coming up in two weeks, will there be a PS3 price cut and/or a PS3 Slim announcement?

Here is my opinion: A PS3 Slim is in production, however the only legitimate rumor of it is that of the Thailand photos and the cease and desist letter. Sony is also going to lower the price of the original PS3 and make it a cheaper alternative to the Slim. The Slim will appear better due to its design and new features such as PS2 backwards compatibility. There are three main reasons I draw these conclusions:

1.Sony recently revealed that they found a way to emulate the Emotion Engine (the PS2 engine) into the PS3 without additional production cost, a factor which made Sony take it away from the original PS3. Having this ability they can construct a console with backwards compatibility now. But the PS3 is already on the market, and re-introducing backwards compatibility into the PS3 would anger the consumers that already have PS3's. Why should a newer PS3 have backwards compatibility and an older one which is the exact same not have it? Sony would not introduce it back into the normal PS3. It makes sense that if there were a Slim console, this would have the backwards compatibility. It is a selling point for many people, and it wouldn't anger current PS3 owners.

2.The gigantic elephant in the room is a PS3 price cut, and it will eventually come. But why did Sony not cut the price during E3? Reducing a price at E3 when there is a major media focus on video games makes the most sense. Why wait? It is possible that they are waiting to introduce the Slim and reduce PS3 price at the same time. Cutting the price while introducing a new Slim would give people a cheaper model to buy (PS3) and a more expensive model (Slim). This is strategy employed by Microsoft with the Core and the Elite models of the Xbox 360.

3.Sony has done this before to re-invigorate customers. A common strategy is to redesign a console to almost "relaunch" interest, a strategy Sony employed with the PS2. This was a smart idea and it did work with the PS2. Doing this with the PS3 makes a lot of sense. Redesigning somethings makes some people want it more, and it makes some people who previously were not interested get interested. This is a common strategy among all companies (remember the Mustang re-invention?), and it would not be surprising if Sony used it too.

What do you think? PS3 Slim or not? Will GAMEScon reveal it all?