Last year, Sony had announced the smaller and cheaper redesign of its PlayStation 3, as the PS3 slim. The product, which was well received, came with a $100 price rebate and sold over a million units within the first week of its release.

Now, reports are that Microsoft is following Sony's lead and is preparing to release a slim version of its popular Xbox 360 gaming console - the Xbox 360 Slim. Although there have been no official announcements yet, two images of what the product might look like have emerged.

While one picture shows the entire motherboard, which is a more compact version of the system's present configuration, the second one displays what is beneath the giant fan that is seen in the original picture.

While it is true that Microsoft has undergone various changes over the years, most of these have been internal and the average customers could not notice them easily. But this change would be a more definite one, and has definitely gotten fans excited.

Microsoft, for now, has stuck to its official story. "Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation", a company representative said.