PS3 Slim Selling Early at Some Stores

Some retailers are reportedly selling the PS3 Slim prior to its official release date of September 1. IGN is claiming that they bought a PS3 Slim at a GameStop in Australia. Below we have an image of a Best Buy putting the console out for their customers. Breaking the street date is not entirely new. A lot of games have gone on sale before their official release. At any rate, there’s a good chance that if you call around or visit a local Best Buy or GameStop that you might find a system. It’s definitely worth the effort as the new system is expected to sell briskly.

In other PS3 news, Sony is planning on a massive £82 million advertising campaign for the system in Europe. “Two years after launch, PlayStation 3 is realising its full potential,” Alan Duncan, UK marketing director for SCEE told Guardian.co.uk. “The console is moving beyond gaming and gaming is moving beyond discs.”

Analysts expect that Sony will pass the Xbox 360 in overall European sales this year, a critical battleground in the console war where an American company leads on its home turf against the PS3 and a Japanese company leads on its against the Xbox 360. The PS3 is expected to sell 4.3 million units in Europe for 2009, putting it at 11.16 million units in Europe. The Xbox 360, meanwhile, will sell an estimated 3 million units for a total of 11 million. Nintendo’s Wii will be far ahead of both of them with 7.5 million this year and 21 million total.