Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

PS3 Slim for autumn - report

And Xbox 360 Elite to replace Pro.

Sony may be readying a PS3 Slim model for launch this autumn, while Microsoft may be cutting the price of the top-tier Xbox 360 Elite.

To make way for the Slim hardware, Sony will finally cut the price of existing PS3 consoles, according to Ars Technica's "favourite inside source".

Preceding that, retailers will be given a limited inventory of 80GB PS3 units in order to clear stock.

The same source also claims the Xbox 360 Pro model will disappear at the end of the summer, after plenty of shelf-clearing bundles similar to the Halo 3/Fable II deal.

The Elite will reposition to fill the gap after an "early September" price cut, allowing more users to effectively use on-demand video streaming and downloaded content from Xbox Live.

Sony has a history of thinning its PlayStation hardware. The PSone and PS2 were both reduced in size - the latter four years after European launch. The PS3 didn't launch in Europe until early 2007, so this would be an early move on Sony's behalf - although arguably the pressure is greater than ever before. And, of course, Sony trimmed the PSP after just two years.