Never a company to miss out on the pre-Christmas rush, Sony has held a press conference at the Tokyo Game Show to reveal plans to release an updated model of the Playstation 3 console, and also some news regarding the PS Vita handheld console. Sadly, no news on the Playstation 4 yet though.

The new console will be slimmer and sleeker in appearance (thanks to a redesigned internal architecture), featuring a dual textured finished and different options for internal storage. One will feature a 500GB internal HDD, and will be packaged with the latest version of the FIFA series, FIFA 13 (or Assassin’s Creed III in the US). The other model will feature  12GB SSD, which will be ideal for Playstation Plus users who make use of the cloud storage for game saves, but there will also be a PlayStation branded 250GB external HDD available for purchase, which will give more flexibility in terms of content storage.

The prices announced so far are that the 500GB model will be $300/€300, and the 12GB model will be $230/€230. The UK prices have yet to be released, but the release dates are set for September 28th for Europe and October 12th for the UK.

There was also a secondary announcement regarding Playstation Plus accounts being made available to the PSVita consoles, meaning that users will have access to free games included in the package and also access to 1GB of online storage for game saves. The good news is that Playstation 3 subscribers will also have access to the service across both devices. The Vita will also be available in red and blue, but I’m unsure whether the colour change will bring that much of a boost to the sales.

While both of these are good announcements for Sony, I can’t help but feel that the “New” Playstation 3 console could have waited until next year, when we will undoubtedly be witnessing the unveiling of the Playstation 4.