It's official. After months of denying it, Sony has finally decided to drop the price on its PS3 console. The news came at a press conference at the Gemerson show in Europe today. Effective August 19th, the current 80G PS3 model will drop by $100 to a final price of $299, Sony said.

In Japan the unit will cost 29,980 yen. It will be £249 in the UK.

In addition, the new PS3 slim will be hitting store shelves as early as September. The new slim PS3 is 36 percent lighter and uses 34 percent less power. It will also be sold for $299. The new slim console has all the same features as the full size PS3.

Speculation to a price drop for the PS3 had been building for months, since the E3 show in LA when no price cut was announced. Developers had been pressuring Sony for the price drop, though until today Sony had denied that it would happen.

Currently the PS3 is in third place in terms of install base behind the Xbox 360 and the fantastically performing (and number one) Nintendo Wii. Perhaps the new price will shift those numbers, which is of course what Sony is hoping.