The PS3 slim has been rumored for quite some time. But now more than ever it"s almost guaranteed that Sony will announce the new PS3 tonight at its three hour long press conference.
Sears and Kmart both have live web pages that allow you to pre order the upcoming PS3 Slim. While it is not known if the PS3 Slim name will stay, it is certain that a new, thinner, cheaper, PS3 is on the way. Kmart and Sears both list the console at $299.99 which is a $100 price drop over the current price for the console; both sites list availability on 8/24/2009.
Unknown at this point is what all the PS3 Slim will include. Information on its backwards compatibility, hard drive size, and other details are still missing but will surely be hashed out at tonight"s event.
The new price point should help to move more consoles and give Sony a boost to its bottom line. The conference tonight takes place from 18:00-21:00 local time in Cologne, Germany.
Update: The PS3 Slim has been confirmed and will hit retail shelves sometime in September. It will cost $299.99 as expected, 120 GB HDD, and have all the same features as the current PS3 80GB.