As you may have heard Sony is said to be having a 3 hour-long conference before during the event on Tuesday 18th August, between 6PM-9PM (Central European Summer Time). 3 hours is a long time for such a conference so we're expecting a lot of announcements.

Sales Drivel - There's always some sort of sales figures and charts in every conference. This one will not be an exception, Sony has to keep their investors happy.

PCN Thinks: Guaranteed

PS3 Slim Announcement - We've seen a lot of things recently regarding the PS3 Slim, so it is very likely to be coming at gamescom. Whether the final PS3 Slim looks like the one in the leaked videos and pictures, we don't know. Some of our staff expect the final PS3 Slim SKU to be different to the one we've seen, but will we see a PS3 Slim at gamescom?

PCN Thinks: Very Likely

Price-cut Announcement - The price-cut has been hinted at several times during the past few weeks. But whether the current PS3 will be discounted or the PS3 Slim will enter the market at a discounted price is debatable. Judging from previous PS3 SKU releases, I'd expect Sony to announce the PS3 Slim at maybe $349, whilst at the same time discounting the current stock of PS3s to $299. This would allow Sony to get rid of the current stock of PS3s, and at the same time dramatically increase their sales. A further price-cut for the Slim PS3 could be announced later on. Obviously this isn't the ideal situation for the consumer, but this is Sony we're talking about, their company comes first and if they can make $50 from their new SKU, they will.

So will some sort of price-cut be announced for the PS3?

PCN Thinks: Highly Likely

Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time Release Date Announced - We're huge fans of Insomniac here at PS3Center, so anything regarding news of their titles is very welcome. Ratchet & Clank's release date is yet to be announced, but Insomniac did hint at a revelation pretty soon. What better way to announce the release date for the game, than at Europe's largest games convention?

PCN Thinks: Highly Likely

M.A.G. Public Beta Coming Soon - Massive Action Game has been spotted in prvate beta a couple of times over the past weeks, and the private beta always precedes the public beta. We're guessing that Sony will want to test their servers and infrastructure before the game releases which could be this year or early next year.

PCN Thinks: Likely

PSPgo Price change - When the PSPgo was announced at E3, everyone immediately looked at the massive price tag, $249. $249 is a lot, especially when it comes to a handheld, it's obvious that Sony is looking to market this as an alternative to the iPhone/iPod Touch, but it's unlikely to work. There are rumors however that the PSPgo will be getting some sort of a price-cut before it is released, maybe through another SKU with less HDD space. Sony have however mentioned that they will continue to sell the PSP-3000 alongside the PSPgo, so would they want to confuse the consumer further by adding another SKU in the mix?

PCN Thinks: 50-50

Gran Turismo 5 Release Date Announcement - A lot of people, inluding myself believe that this game will be releasing in December, but how many times have we thought an announcement was coming, yet it didn't? We thought we'd see the Team ICO game at last year's E3, but it didn't show, we thought we'd see it at TGS 2008, but again it didn't show. So those that believe this game won't be coming to gamescom do have a point.

PCN Thinks: 50-50

PSP Trophies - People have been asking for this since the PS3 got trophies, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's coming. The upcoming release of the PSPgo, which will be a completely PSN-based handheld does give some credence to PSP trophies coming. I mean why offer a PSN-based handheld, which doesn't offer all of the PSN's features? However there hasn't even been a slither of evidence of this coming at all.

PCN Thinks: Unlikely

And a few leftovers:

- Jak & Daxter PS3: Highly Unlikely, Naughty Dog are hard at work with Uncharted 2.
- Singstar Michael Jackson: 50-50, this is definitely possible, Singstar is developed by SCEE so we could see it.
- Kingdom Hearts 3: Highly Unlikely, again the team that makes this game is currently at work on FFvs13.
- Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Highky Unlikely, same reason as the above, but if it was coming it would be announced at TGS.
- Sony Motion Control Demo: Highly Likely, whether we'll see a more in-depth demo however is doubtful.
- Agent Trailer: Very Unlikely, the game was just announced at E3, if the developers have made a CG trailer within a couple of months we'd be very impressed.