Sony’s CEO, Howard Stringer, moved quickly to deny rumours that were growing on the internet.

This is in response to games developer, Activision, when their CEO suggested they may stop developing games for the PS3 because of the high price of the system.

But the Sony boss responded to the Activision’s CEO:

“He likes to make a lot of noise. He’s putting pressure on me and I’m putting pressure on him. That’s the nature of business.”

And on cutting the price of the PS3?

“I [would] lose money on every PlayStation I make. How’s that for logic?”

Activision’s game titles include Call of Duty and Guitar Hero.

According to rumours, Sony has put in place production deals with Foxconn and Pegatron to manufacture the new units which new machines coming off the production lines by the end of July 2009.  They are likely to head on to the shelves in Asia initially before being well placed in the Western PS3 markets in time for the US holiday season.

Both the XBox 360 and PS3 have been criticised for their bulky design, drew in part from the need to aerate the powerful CPU and GPU’s running inside the machine, but improvements in fan technology and chip design has enabled Sony to be able to construct a new slimline design which will give the console a huge boost.

Images of the new machine have already been doing the rounds on the net, this is believed to represent an image of a pack shot for the new machine.

Potential PS3 purchases may be put on hold for the next 2 months as people wait to see the new price for the PS3 Slim.

It is believed September will be the UK’s second biggest month (behind launch month) in terms of PS3 sales, with sales levels rising at the August Bank Holiday.

Many retailers are now bundling extra games and wireless pads in at the same price that the machine alone was selling for only months ago.

While it is too early to speculate of a Christmas rush the industry believes that PlayStation’s will be sold far earlier in the Autumn this year due to a number of factors including the poor weather which has left consumers with more money in their pocket than in previous years.

Could we be about to see a Christmas panic as Sony’s PlayStation 3 runs dry across the country?

Keep up to date with the latest PS3 deals, and our top recommendation here