As the PS4 launch date is coming sooner and sooner, rumors start to arise.
The latest one that sparked much more debates is a possible north american release date for the PS4.

The date is October 21st of this year, and as some people has also noted, it doesn’t necessarily means it’s the release date of the PS4, it could be a new PS3 model, or a slim PS Vita.

This is what neogaf had to say:

Here’s a juicy rumor for potential PlayStation 4 buyers. According to a NeoGaf user by the name of Nealand Liquor a listing for an unnamed Sony console notes the release date as October 21. Barring Sony working on a PlayStation 3 revision or a PS Vita 2, this release date falls within the rumored release window for the PlayStation 4.

Nealand, however, is persuaded that the listing is absolutely the PlayStation 4 and believes the release date to be officially confirmed by Sony. He states that in previous product release schedules revisions like slim consoles are listed by their official names, where new platforms like the Wii U, 3DS and Vita are only referenced as a Nintendo/Sony console. He also states that release dates, if unconfirmed, are listed as TBA. If a release date is listed, it has been confirmed by the product’s company.

Read the rest here.

What’s interesting with this date is that it’s on par with Sony’s estimated launch period. But remember what I said: it could be a new PS3 model (maybe a stripped down version of the PS3 like they did with the PSP Street when the Vita was released) or a slimmer, cheaper PS Vita model.

Quite frankly I see no point in a new PS3 models, there are quiet a lot and some pretty cheap if you get them second hand. Of course, this may be the actual reason for a new model, a la PSP street. Sony may not like that PS3 sales will be limited mostly to second hand models, so they’ll want to throw in a competitor for the second hand market. Would it be a good idea or would it have flaws like the PSP Street?

On the other side we also have the rumor of a slimmer and cheaper PS Vita.
Now we all know the Vita is not doing well at all, and I’d say it’s mostly Sony’s fault for focusing extremely too much on stopping piracy, and not enough on games, or making the system cheaper. Right now, the entire library of games for the Vita are PSP games, a few PS1 games (way too expensive for my taste) and some PSM games that don’t really cut it. The lack of games is pretty much a side effect of lack of sales: if there are no sales, there are no big devs interested. And this lack of sale come only from one place: the console’s price. The Vita is priced at 250€, compared to the 160€ the 3DS has, there’s almost a difference of 100€ between the systems.
It is a fact that if the Vita would be priced at 160€ just like the 3DS, its sales would only go up, and we know this because of the impressive sales the Vita had in Japan when they lowered the price down to 160€, not only did the system’s sales went up, but the console sold out in many stores. Why hasn’t Sony done this in other countries is beyond me, maybe they do, but not lowering the price of this model, maybe they come up with a slimmer model. Whatever it is, the Vita needs a price drop if it wants to survive. Otherwise I see it as a Dreamcast 2.

This is all I can say to these rumors, so let me hear your thoughts on the comments below.