I came in here to say that everybody can finally put the to rest the notion that the PS3 is waaaaay overpriced and out of reach. Haha, funny the first post i read claims that it is still too way overpriced. Ridiculous.
People blasting the new slim PS3 for its looks...well, that's really just a personal preference. I think it looks fine, and predictable given how the PS2 fat to PS2 slim transitioned. Granted in this case, I actually prefer the looks of the fat PS3 over the slim, the criticism of the slim is a bit ridiculous and comments regarding its new price is just an instance of blatant fanboy-ism.
At 299, this thing is one of the top performing blu-ray players on the market, has wi-fi built in (no need to pay for any adapters to connect, ahem, unlike another competitor), has an upgradable HD where you can use as a HT station to stream your media, and plays playstation 3 games, of course. And although a long shot, with news of Sony patenting some tweaks to the cell processor to render PS2 games, there is a small chance that all PS3 will have at least the software ability to play some PS2 games, as well.
Factor all that geek junk in a package under 300 bucks is quite a value imho, considering a respectable, high performing, HT quality blu-ray player alone costs at least 200 plus atm, not factoring in special promos/clearance deals (note respectable, not 100 usd BD players that will crap out in a year)... I mean come on. The playstation 3 definitely still has its warts (tweaked/improved interface, better PSN improvements, etc...), but to say that it is outrageously overpriced at 299 is just so.... "ray-tard".