PS3? Rumors? Pfft.

Sony's seemingly apparent lack of an ability to prevent the spread of crazy rumors that later turn out to be true hasn't stopped it from poking fun at itself while playing the innocent bystander.

For a long while now, everyone had been speculating that the PS3 would become smaller (like the slim PS2) and that a price drop was imminent. To many, this made sense in order to help bolster its numbers against its rivals and to give consumers another reason to choose it instead.

The only question was when and it didn't help that Sony's poker face held up in the face of rampant speculation and scrutiny. Even at their past news conference at E3, SCEA President and CEO, Jack Tretton, had joked with the crowd in saying that they at least kept one thing quiet with the surprise announcement of Final Fantasy XIV, taking it all in stride. But with the news of the new price drop at Gamescom, Sony's starting to come out swinging with a nicely sized funny bone.

A clever commercial celebrating the new price point has come out along with another piece reminding everyone that it does everything aside from being able to launch satellites (although I'm sure someone is thinking of how). I like the approach that they're taking with these and hope to see what else they'll do. It's certainly head and shoulders above their previous artsy attempts that were almost as disturbing as finding the Burger King in bed with you.

Update 9.7.09: I had a feeling that saying "Nigerian millionaire" was going to ruffle a few feathers, even though it was a clear hint to the advance-fee scams made infamous via e-mail. The new commercial replaces the line following the part where he says you can't believe everything on the internet with "That's how World War 1 started."...which is bizarre. That makes as much sense as saying "That's why Caesar was stabbed.". I guess in this case, retroactive humor is hard, but you can still watch the original below.