A French retailer may just have announced the new price point for the PlayStation 3 – unwittingly or otherwise, but accurately with any luck.

Carrefour is like a French Tesco, carrying a wide range of products from foods and fine wines to high-end tech gadgets such as the PlayStation 3, which they’ve just listed in a newly-published product catalogue.

Now this could just be the result of carelessness on the part of the catalogue’s designers. It could just as easily be a complete hoax too. However we prefer to think that somebody within the Carrefour organisation has mucked-up and significantly jumped the gun on an announcement that Sony has yet to make. Whatever the case, the PS3 is listed in the Carrefour catalogue at €299 – around £258 – and that’s a chunk of change cheaper than the current rrp of £299.99.

Adding further to the intrigue the text accompanying the listing specifies “New console, new price” and an effective start date of September 1st. That said, the console pictured looks like the regular PS3 rather than the ‘slim’ model that’s been rumoured for months. Meanwhile Sony is set to make a press statement at GamesCom in Cologne next Tuesday. Could it be that the thunder of their announcement has already been stolen…?