Finally, actual PS3 Slim sales numbers. Before all we had were percentages—sales up 300 percent over last week, that type of thing. Anyhow, Sony sold one million PS3 Slims since its launch back on September 1. That’s worldwide, mind you.

The PS3 Slim is a hit, but hopefully Final Fantasy diehards haven’t already purchased one. Sony has a special white and pink edition coming that will honor the franchise. Plus, it will come rocking a 250GB HDD. So far the special edition is only announced for Japan though. It’s slated to be released on December 17 for ¥41,600. (That’s a ¥11,620 premium over the standard PS3 Slim)

Well look at that: not only is the PS3 Slim a big success over in Japan but it’s also doing pretty damn well here in the U.S. Sales were up some 300 percent in at Sony’s “top retailers,” comparing the the week it launched to the previous week.

Oh, if only Sony had somehow released the PS3 Slim back in November, 2006, how different things would be! The sales reports are staring to trickle in from Japan, and Sony sold some 150,000 during the first three days of availability. That represents the system’s best showing ever.

Dealnews has found a nice little trick to get the PS3 Slim for only $200. Yeah, you have to jump through some hoops and have good credit, but hey, it’s worth a try.

The PS3 Slim literally took the world by storm last week, shaking the Heavens themselves in the process. But this new development warrants our attention: is the PS3 Slim slower than the PS3 Fat (or is that Phat? Help me, Internet.)? A bunch of videos posted to YouTube certainly seem to indicate as such.

What would it be like to have a real testing lab instead of working in the makeshift “lab” that is John’s attic? A blogger can dream. Or we can take a look at an outfit like Cnet.

The boys over at CBS tested the new PS3 Slim against the PS3 Fat using an array of power consumption tests. The verdict?

Sony giveth, and Sony taketh away. About six people were upset that Sony decided to, once and for all, kill PS2 backwards compatibility with the PS3 Slim. But as the rubbish opening sentence implies, PS3 Slim owners will, indeed, have something over their PS3 Fat (is that the standard nomenclature now?) brethren: Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio support.

Sony loves them some bundle packs and the Gundam franchise will be the first to grace the box of a PS3 Slim. The Japanese only box will include Kidou Senshi Gundam Senki and will save gamers a few yen. But the pack also includes product codes for FA-78-3 Full Armor Gundam and RX-81AS Assault Armor DLC packs, and an original HD animated Gundam film.

Watching the news come in yesterday about the PS3 Slim, I said to myself, “Man, this is great for Sony, especially if we’re still in 2006.” Harsh, perhaps, but the sentiment is spot-on: had Sony released the PS3, Slim or otherwise, at $299 back in the autumn of 2006, we could well have seen an effortless transition between the PS3 and PS3. As it turned out, three years later, we’re left wondering this: Is the PS3 Slim enough to, say, re-ignite the Console Wars?

We’ve just received the official images and press release from Sony regarding the PS3 Slim. The new SKU, CECH-2000A, will rock a 120GB HDD and goes on sale in NA, Europe/PAL and Asian countries on September 1 for $299 and €299, respectively. Surprisingly, Japan will get the Slim two days later for 29,980 yen. The 80GB PS3 price drops down to $299 starting today in NA and down to €299 starting tomorrow. The 160GB PS3 also saw a price drop of $100 and now goes for $399. The rest of the press release can be found after the jump.

Update: We’ve added a picture of the last gen PS3 with the new Slim PS3 so you can see the difference in size.

Sony just finished its big press conference at GamesCom, a sort of European E3. The big news: yes, the PS3 Slim is real, and it’s coming next month for $299.