145w ago - With the arrival of GamesCom comes news of the more eco-friendly PS3 Slim 160GB and 320GB models which have already hit Japan arriving in North America, alongside word of pricedrops on the 120GB and 250GB PlayStation 3 consoles in order to phase out the older versions.

IGN (linked above) revealed that retailer GameStop has preemptively posted and since removed a listing for the new 160GB PS3 Slim console on their site.

Additionally, PlayStationLifeStyle.net reports that Sony plans to phase out the 120GB and 250GB PS3 models to replace them with the larger PlayStation 3 HDD revisions.

To quote: "So what's going to happen to the 120GB and 250GB PS3? Price drops... Or at least a temporary one. Our retail source also reports that listed right now in his store's system, it has the 250GB PS3 for $299.99. That's a $50 price drop for the 250GB model.

Although our source didn't...

145w ago - Approximately nine months have passed since the PlayStation 2 was launched in Brazil, and now Sony has made the PS3 Slim 120GB console available there for around $1,130 USD each.

Believe it or not, that is actually $278 less than originally planned from Sony Style stores for the South American country, as Anderson Gracias explains via Kotaku (linked above), to quote:

"According to Anderson Gracias, division manager of Sony PlayStation Brazil, the original price was to be 2,499 Brazil Reais, or $1,408. In order to stay competitive with the Xbox 360, which sells for R $999 to R $1,599 in the country, Sony is subsidizing part of the cost.

Brazil will get the PlayStation Network in three phases, beginning in 2011 with a Portuguese translation. Then Brazilian content will be added, and finally the service will be tweaked to work with the services available in the country."

146w ago - Today Kotaku (linked above) has reported that a new Madden NFL 11 250GB PS3 bundle has surfaced at retailer Best Buy which may interest sports fans.

Not surprisingly, just a few days ago a Madden NFL 11 PSP bundle was also officially announced by Sony.

To quote: "If you're finally ready to jump into PlayStation 3 ownership and plan on doing so with a copy of Madden NFL 11, wait for the bundle.

BB's listing a Madden NFL 11 250GB PS3 bundle with the same street date as the main game, Aug. 10. Right now, it's listed in a dead category in Best Buy's database.

That's typically done to mask a product from searches before it's been officially announced the tipster says."

147w ago - This weekend Datel Japan has launched their new accessory featured on Japan Game Watch dubbed the PS3 Hub for the PlayStation 3, which offers PS3 Slim owners more USB ports alongside a memory card reader.

The add-on accessory connects to the PS3 Slim console providing users with three extra USB slots and several variations of SD card slots.

Below is a picture of the the maximum amount of devices that can be connected with the PS3 Hub to a PlayStation 3 Slim, with some additional pictures available HERE.

Finally, to quote from TheSixthAxis.com (linked above): "For 2,000 Yen, the device plugs into the right-most USB port giving you another 3 extra sockets (so 4 in total) plus plenty of memory-card related goodness, including an SD cart slot that's sadly missing on most models after the launch console.

The ports aren't powered, although you can connect (judging from my translation) an external power supply to give them more juice."

147w ago - This weekend a new PS3 Slim model CECH-2500A complete with a 160GB PlayStation 3 hard disk drive hits Japan, and based on a comparison the updated revision is slightly more eco-friendly too!

As reported previously, a PS3 HDMI cable will also be included with the new PS3 model along with 802.11b/g WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR that was first announced pre-E3.

According to a comparison chart from JustPushStart.com (linked above), the PS3 CECH-2500A will also save the environment and video gamers money as it runs slightly more efficiently than previous PlayStation 3 models.

Those interested can check out the greener PS3 comparison chart below.