Sony Announces PS3, with Slimmer Price and Profile

Ars Technica reports: The PS3 Slim has officially been confirmed by Sony, and it's coming in at a great price: $299.99. The system will be available in the first week of September, feature a 120GB hard drive, and will be around a third smaller and lighter than the first-generation systems. It gets better: if you don't want to wait on the Slim, tomorrow you'll be able to go to your favorite retailer and buy an existing PS3 for $299.99 as well.

Don't expect any changes in hardware or features outside of the smaller and lighter case; the PS3 Slim will do all the things current systems on store shelves can do, and will fail at the things the current hardware fails at. It's time to finally give up the dream of backwards compatibility.

Sony did reveal other things at its press conference, although none were quite as exciting. If you pick up a PSP Go at launch and register before October 10, you'll receive a free copy of Gran Turismo PSP for your shiny new system, which should help you deal with the sticker shock of buying a $250 console with no physical port for games. There will also be an area of the PlayStation Network for "minis," games under 100MB that should be less expensive than full releases. Think of it as an Xbox Live Arcade for the PSP Go.

There will be minis available on October 1 to go along with the launch of the system, with more added as time goes on. Debut titles include Hero of Sparta, Tetris, and Minigore. In other words, expect to see some iPhone ports.

Sony also announced an upcoming comic reader for the PSP, offering access to hundreds of Marvel Comics, along with Archie Comics and Image titles. There was scant information on the cost of this service and no firm release date, but fans of digital comics should be able to get their fill of new releases through Sony's portable system.