PlayStation 3, in all its glorious bulk.

Suspicion that Sony’s PlayStation 3 has been dipped in Slim-Fast grew this week when pictures of the alleged console redesign trickled onto the Internet.

The grainy images came from overseas and show a console that’s at least half the size of the current PS3 and with a slightly different logo stamped onto the case.

Sony hasn’t confirmed whether the depictions are based on reality. Still, the PS3 is famous for being rather bulky, talk of streamlining its profile has been going on around the Web for months, and we’re just a few days from E3 — a prime-time opportunity to unveil new and reconfigured products.

Besides, Sony has done the diet thing before, back in 2004 with PlayStation 2, which was cut down to about a third the size of the original console. But the reduction in size included a reduction in capacity; the new system lacked internal hard drive and power supply (the latter was added back in some systems three years later), and that prompted comments that the smaller PS2 was actually a step down from its predecessor.

If PS3 shrinks, one wonders what Sony might excise in the process. Game Guy guesses it won’t be the Blu-ray drive — an important attraction among non-gamers. Let’s say though, just for discussion, that Sony asked people what they thought the next PS3 could do without. What would you suggest?