When Sony announced the revised "Super Slim" PS3 earlier this week, many were surprised to find that the base price of the PS3 had actually gone up--not down, bucking the trend. Oddly, there will be "no price drop" at all--not even of older "not-so-slim" PS3 models.

Sony's John Koller explained that customers are tired of "weird price moves" made by the hardware manufacturers with retail price promotions, gift card offers, etc. "What we really want is content and games and value," Koller said. That's why the base model offered in America includes Uncharted 3 and premium content for use in DUST 514.

Koller told Engadget that there will be "no formal price drop" on the older model, simply because there are "only so many units of the older models left on store shelves." And while the new model is smaller, there may be some that prefer the front-loading design of the second-generation PS3. Consider this your last chance to pick up the now-discontinued model.

In Europe, the PS3 will come available in an even-cheaper 12GB model, something we expected Sony to offer in the States for a budget price. However, that model is not coming to the US because North American customers access far more digital content than their European counterparts. "The smaller Flash drive isn't coming to North America, and a lot of that reason is the digital consumer," Koller says. "We really want to make sure, out of the box, that there is an option for them to be able to download that content. That is really critical for us, very very important."

Still, we still think a $199 PS3 would have been a great marketing bullet point, especially as the next generation of consoles kicks off.