Sony planning 250GB PS3 Slim?

What we heard: Even though news of the PlayStation 3 Slim redesign leaked out six ways from Sunday before its official unveiling today, it was not for lack of surreptitious behavior on Sony's part. Just look at the FCC filing in question, which consists of radio test reports for 120GB and 250GB versions of Sony's slimmed-down PS3. The filing was not actually made by Sony, but instead by Sand Dollar Enterprise, a Foster City, California, outfit that shares an address with Sony Computer Entertainment America. Then there's the Sand Dollar contact name given in the filing, SCEA senior vice president of legal Riley Russell.

So clearly, this is a Sony filing. And although it doesn't explicitly include the PS3 Slim moniker, the filing lists the model numbers of the two systems as CECH-2001A and CECH-2001B. Sony's own press pictures of the PS3 Slim display the machine with the CECH-2000 model number, while the system's spec sheet lists its product code as "CECH-2000A."

Of course, a PS3 Slim with 250GB of hard drive space falls right in line with Sony's penchant for multiple hardware configurations. The standard PS3 has been available in 20GB, 40GB, 60GB, 80GB, and 160GB packages, with or without PlayStation 2 backward compatibility, and with or without bundled games like Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Killzone 2. Clearly, it's not a question of if Sony will tweak the PS3 Slim configurations offered to consumers, but when.

The official story: "We are not commenting at this time." - A Sony representative.

Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus that Sony is prepping a 250GB PS3 Slim package for possible release. The real question is when Sony will release it, what it will cost--and what Sony will pack in to the box to sweeten the deal.