Rumor: PS3 Slim even more stripped down

I’m quite proud to say I own one of the original 60GB PS3 models.  It is a very valuable piece of hardware. It has everything, from wi-fi, backwards compatibility, flash card readers, SACD support, 4 USB slots, etc.  Yes, I paid a premium price for a premium product, $600.

Since the release of the original 60GB PS3 model, however, Sony has been trying to lower the price of the console, while at the same time lowering the cost to build the console.  As a result, Sony started removing some of these features one by one from the system.  Naturally, the PS3 Slim, which is rumored to be announced at the Tokyo Games Show this year, will be continue this trend of “less features means less money”, removing even more “non-gaming essentials” from the platform.

According to an N4G forumgoer, Super_Secret, the PS3 Slim will be missing the support for other operating systems as well as other hardware changes, including the on/off switch in the back of the console, so, good luck if you have to power off to reset a frozen console…

Clearly, news from a message board poster is not a reliable source, so this should be taken strictly as rumor until otherwise confirmed, however Super_Secret did correctly predict the release of the PS3 Firmware 2.80 this week.