PlayStation 3 Slim becomes reality, priced $299

As was evident before this years E3, Sony can't keep shit secret these days. Back then it was all the PSPGo stuff, pictures and everything. Now it was the PS3 Slim. Leaks of the PS3 diet version have been plentiful, and today it has become official.

So, what's changed? Guess what? It's smaller! That's right! You heard it here first! Confirmed!

Okay, fine, seriously. There's an unboxing video at 1UP that you may want to check out, it shows pretty well the size differences between the old Hulk and the new slim. It's also lighter, and looks quite different. Most of the surface is now matte, as opposed to Hulk's fingerprint magnet glossy surface. And perhaps the most important change is that they ditched the Spiderman font. That alone makes me want to buy it.

Other things to note is that it has 120GB hard drive, and has no hardware for backwards compatibility with PS2 games. Software emulation is still a possibility, but I wouldn't know anything about that.

The obvious and the most important part (aside from the Spidey font) is the price cut that it brings with it. The Slim will cost $299 or 299€, and apparently the old Hulk of a model will also have it's price slashed. So far there has been no clear notion on what the old model will cost, but the general consensus around the gaming media seems to be that it will also get a $299 price.

What remains to be seen is whether it's durable or not. Obviously the chips inside the console are smaller and generate less heat, but I just get the feeling that maybe they packed it too tight and it might suffer from overheating. So, you can be sure that I'm not going to be one of the first to rush to buy one. I'll let all of you be the guinea pigs.

Now, another obvious question is, is this too little too late? For someone with limited amount of cash to spend on video games, chances are that a big chunk of the audience has already picked their console, of the two cheaper ones. I know I have, 360 was my choice and I can't see myself getting the PS3, no matter how slim it is, in any foreseeable future. So, who knows how this will go for Sony.