...thanks to an article from Ars Technica.

How does that article do this, you ask? Well the info comes from a very reliable source which they refer to as "The Mole." Who has given out details regarding things like the PSP Go with superb accuracy.

According to this "Mole," the price of the PlayStation 3 will be lowered, and in addition they'll release the Slim PS3 this fall. There were no specific details included, however, so things like the price it'll be dropped to, or whether this will affect the current SKUs on the market remain a mystery.

So how's this make the rumor more probable? There are few things responsible for that. First of all, the PS3 has been having a lot of trouble (or rather, more than usual) at retail. The cause of which analyst Jesse Divnich believes is due to the consoles "reaching saturation at current price points." A likely cause considering that the consoles (specifically the PS3, and the Wii) have stayed around a certain price point sense launch. Which in the PS3s case, is the reason for its bad performance at retail.

Second, the images leaked prior to E3 help prove "The Mole's" claim of the Slim PS3 coming this fall. As the images looked legit, and after said images started appearing on various gaming sites, a letter was sent to all the sites that posted them and asked that they be removed. Which further makes it seem like they're working on it. Especially sense the manufacture of the system (MainTek) also asked that they be removed form the from the original source -- a Chinese forum.

With those things in mind, I'd say the chances of this actually happening are rather high. And the evidence supports the claims made by Ars Technica's source. That and Sony isn't in a very good position in terms of sales, so this might (and probably will) help them immensely. So I highly doubt that this will end up being false.