We may have called the PlayStation 3 a beauty in our roundup of the most aesthetically pleasing video game consoles, but we'll admit it's a bit of a beast, too. It's a gargantuan black monolith, and while that sort of thing was considered stylish in the 90s, 80s, and 70s (just look at the Sears Tower), it doesn't seem to resonate any more in the early 21st century.

That's why we thought you might be interested to know that there are some rumors going around that the PS3 will be slimmed down at the huge E3 gaming conference early next month. It started with an unnamed source over at a site called PlayStation Lifestyle, and then was amplified by the appearance of the above image (and a few others) of a supposed PS3 Slim. The rumors have already been denied by Sony's U.K. division, but you wouldn't expect anything different.

Sony released slimmer versions of the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 midway through their lives, so it would be no big surprise if the same was done to the PS3 eventually.

On one hand, the timing seems right because the processor and graphics chip in the PS3 are about to get smaller and cheaper to produce. On the other hand, this is a bit earlier than anyone expected, and there are some dubious things about the above image. For example, gaming blog Kotaku rightly notes that it would be unusual for Sony to change the font of the console's logo. Usually something like that is a sign of a fake.

But hope against hope along with us, if you like.