The wording maybe slightly ambiguous but a Walmart spreadsheet captured by Joystiq appears to indicate that in the US at least a new model PlayStation 3 will be appearing in August.

The stock-keeping spreadsheet line item regarding the 40Gb PS3 SKU states:



Whether this means the total death of the entry-level PS3 or simply a newer, more cut-down version is unclear. The latter would, however, adhere to the strategy outlined by Sony in its recent conference - which SPOnG reported as 'PS3 Slim'n'Lite for Fiscal 2008?'.

A PowerPoint slide from that event stated Sony's plan to cut PS3 costs via:

"Accelerating cost down efforts
Chip shrink
Reducing the number of components"

So, Microsoft is apparently killing the 20Gb Xbox 360 and Sony is replacing the 40Gb PS3. What do these moves bode for hardware announcements at E3? We'll have to wait and see.

^{Source: Joystiq}