starchild excalibur said:
So I popped my head in close to the start of the thread to see people saying "lolz what a crappy fake" to now talking about whether they'll buy a second ps3 for the slim? When did GAF realize (or at least strongly start to believe) this is the real deal?
voltron said:
why are people talking like this is real now? Any links to prove this or is just some self proclaimed insider?
I think the sequence of increased plausibility happened like this:
1) People started looking at it more closely
2) The realisation that making boxes and case moulds etc. seems a lot of work for a fake
3) The realisation that the context of the pictures - the environment - matches in detail that which we've seen of PS3 assembly environments before (see earlier in the thread for comparisons)
4) Prior recent history of leaks like this from chinese plants (one of the recent psp revisions, ipod/iphone leaks etc.)
5) The sudden removal of the thread on the original chinese message boards once western and japanese sites picked up on it (some say because of a cease and desist from maintek, a scea supplier, but I don't know if that's confirmed)
6) A comment in english and in chinese on another chinese blog concerning these pictures, claimed to be from Maintek, asking them to remove the photos as they were property of Maintek.
7) General closer examination of the casing and its dimensions, which show everything to be 'in place' and to fit, and the apparent new dimensions to be realistic, rather than overly slim (something a faker might be inclined to do..make the thing too small, as we've seen in previous ps3 slim fakes)
8) And then, to a lesser extent, Sony's response which went from "there are currently no plans for a redesign" the day before to "we do not comment on rumours and speculation, thanks for asking" when asked about these photos.
In short I think what's lending it credibility is that there isn't any obvious giveaway here that it's a fake, as normally is the case, and that if it were a fake, someone went to an awful lot of trouble.
If this is true I would expect corroboration to appear in one of the trademark/patent/fcc databases reasonably soon.. that would seal the deal.