Sony maintained for the longest time that no price cuts were coming and that cutting the price of a console already losing money wasn't a sound business plan. Finally, in August, Sony unveiled the new PS3 Slim with fewer parts, a thinner design, and a much lower price tag and everyone was happy.

Now that the PS3 Slim is available at $299, Sony is in the console wars in a bigger way than it has ever been. After the PS3 Slim was announced, Microsoft matched the price and moved its high-end Xbox 360 Elite to the same $299 price point.

With the PS3 Slim packing in Blu-ray the console is suddenly a retail sales juggernaut reports VGChartz. The weekly console sales numbers are in and Sony should be happy with the stats. Since the PS3 Slim started trickling into the market on August 25, sales of the console have jumped by a massive 104% across the board moving from 37,167 consoles the week before the new model to 75,931 once the Slim was in stores.

Over the same period, the Xbox 360 saw sales increase by a more modest 32% rising from 56,448 the week before price cut to 74,689 the week after. Sales for the Wii dropped 4% to a total of 74,245 for the week. What the numbers for the three consoles are showing is basically a three-way tie for sales.

Nintendo may have to cough up a price cut of its own, as things are likely to look worse for the Wii next week. VGChartz reports that the new PS3 Slim wasn't available nationwide during the week reported and the price cut for the Xbox 360 Elite was made later in the week. The next round of numbers will show the true sales picture for both of the consoles.