Sony Unveils Cheaper PS3 Slim And PSP Games

The PS 3 Slim version will pack 120 GB of storage and retail at $299.99. Sony is also slashing the cost of the current PS3s by $100. As of Tuesday, the 80-GB PS3 was available on Amazon for the lower price of $300, while the 160-GB version cost $400.

There are now 23.7 million PS3s in households worldwide, according to Sony. However, Nintendo's Wii has outsold Microsoft's 360 and Sony PS3 systems in terms of unit sales because of its focus on more casual, "family," gaming. Nintendo's Wii costs $50 more than the 80-GB PS3, but lacks the storage and Blu-Ray drives of Sony's offering. Further, Sony also aims to go head-to-head with Nintendo's motion-sensing capability, offering a similar PS3 controller in the near future; the company promised more details on that controller would come at next month's Tokyo Game Show.

There is no backward compatibility from the PS3 Slim. Sony reportedly found through customer research that consumers buy PS3 consoles because of the PS3 games. The "Install other OS" option has also been removed in the PS3 Slim.

In addition to the much-anticipated PS3 Slim debut, Sony also rolled out at yesterday's press conference PSP Minis, smaller games that take advantage of the smaller development cost on the PSP. Reportedly, the Minis will cost customers less, too. Sony is introducing the bite-size games (up to 100 MB) in October; they will be exclusive to the PSN store. Fifteen games will be available Oct. 1, with a total of 50 titles offered by the end of 2009, including the venerable Tetris and Fieldrunners. Also packed into the PSP will be a Digital Reader (in December) with various comic book publishers, including Marvel, signed up to provide content. The PSP Go, a handheld gaming unit, will be available on Oct. 1 for $249.