Media Wonk

So how do you propose the PS3 is going to play upcoming blockbuster games that are using Blu-ray???? Go back to DVD9? Hmm..alright that makes sense.

Wow. This article is utterly worthless and a complete waste of time. The idea that Sony would release a non BD PS3 is complete rubbish. To say that Sony's sales aren't good is making me wonder if you know of its success in Europe (there are other gamers out there than Americans...). The 360 Elite is nothing special at all - an HDMI port and a 120GB HDD. That sounds great and very crippling to Sony. Oh wait, at $479, using standard DVD discs (no HDDVD unless you want to spend an extra $200), having to pay $70/year for XBox Live, and shelling out another $100 if you want WiFi makes the PS3 seem like a steal when compared to Micro$oft's 360 with all the extra costs. Add to that that Sony's profits are actually going up and one can see why this article is a waste of time. I would assume that you, having worked in the electronics field since 1985, would understand that product development costs are high at first, but everything gets cheaper down the road. Sony is not always going to lose money on the PS3, but even so, everybody knows the real money is in assecories. Plus, Sony's market is so large and diverse that it can afford to lose money on one product for a while. Way to keep up on electronics...

I must agree with "Hmm". Arn't all of the PS3 games on Blu-ray? Would there not have to be 2 versions of each game in the stores?

Ehh, the PS3 uses BD discs for the games and so it can't be removed. sorry dude...

I'll admit the odds are long that Sony would do what I suggest, for a lot of reasons. My purpose was to illustrate the tight spot Sony has put itself in by deciding to put a costly Blu-ray drive in every PS3 consoles and the sort of radical choices they're facing if they mean to get out of it. As for PS3 games being released on Blu-ray discs, none of the games released so far really need to be on a high-capacity disc. In fact, if you were to press most third party publishers on the issue, I suspect most would tell you they wish they weren't on the more expensive discs. The only reason they are is because Sony controls the replication of games and requires it. But that has to do with Sony's strategic ambitions for Blu-ray. It has nothing to do with the games business. In effect, third party publishers are being asked (forced) to subsidized Sony's Blu-ray strategy at no benefit to themselves. If they could publish PS3 games on DVD9s I guarantee you they would do it. Making the switch now of course would mean reissuing some titles on DVD9s, but better to do it now, when relatively few titles are already in the marketplace. The longer Sony waits, the harder it would be to do. As for future games, game retailers are used to carrying multiple formats and configurations, so it wouldn't be an impossible burden. They probably wouldn't like it but if there were a market for two configurations they would carry them. At some point of course, developers will create games that absolutely require 25GB of storage on a disc but that day is still a ways off. When it arrives, there are workarounds available to Sony. It could issue an Blu-ray peripheral drive, as Microsoft has done with Xbox 360. Or it could make additional content available for download. Sony would get more bang for the buck putting a hefty hard drive into a non Blu-ray consoles than it gets from putting a Blu-ray drive in. In the meantime, it could better compete with Wii and Xbox and help drive desparately needed software revenue by putting more hardware into the market. Paul Sweeting

That's a ridiculous statement. Why would they suddenly render all the existing games, which are on BD-Rom, useless by not including the Blu-ray drive. You are seriously ignorant about technology.

Sony's stocks are at a 5 year high. What's the tight spot you describe they've put themselves in? If anything they are in a great spot. Look at the box office numbers over the last few years. Sony buying Columbia/Tri-Star and having many more studios now under their belt has not put them in a tight spot. The only one in a tight spot is Toshiba. Universal loses nothing by releasing in Blu-ray.

Well part of Sony's sales slump for the PS3 is in their arrogance. Face it the PS2 demolished the competition, but many things were in their favor and those same things are not there now with the PS3. First the PS2 was only $299 when it launched and most DVD players at the time were $299 or more. Playstation One was still popular as heck with very little competition. Sega at the time was being bashed left and right for a couple past mistakes, plus the Dreamcast did not play DVDs so it got more of a beat down. SEGA got beat-up so bad plus they were loosing so much money from bootleggers, so they pulled out of the console market. So we then have the PS2 at $299 that plays DVDs (still fairly new to most customers) plays PS1 games and plays the new PS2 games, so much hype was surrounding the system for years so it ended up doing very well. No one knew what to think of the XBOX and Nintendo was being bashed as the baby/kiddie system so PS2 was the obvious choice for the average customer. Skip ahead to the PS3 launch.... Xbox 360 is out and they have no plans to stop production like SEGA did. 360 is at a fairly good customer friendly price tag of $399 for the full unit, including HD cables. 360 offers the option to have HD movies via the HD-DVD add on, they are not forcing you to pay $200 extra for it. Then we have the new system from Nintendo called Wii. No one knew what to expect, but when Nintendo showed the Wii off at E3 and lines were long as heck with people waiting up to 5 hours just to get in to play it. PS3 lines were 2 minutes if that.... That alone should of showed SONY to worry about Nintendo, but SONY wrote Nintendo off because the PS2 destroyed the Game Cube in sales. We still have the PS2 system outselling the 360 so SONY became arrogant, heck I would, and figured they could sell the PS3 at any price and sell millions! Sony also pulled the shortage plan, I knew they would, by shipping only 200,000 instead of the 1,000,000+ they originally guaranteed. You still have to buy HD cables, can't they just throw in some cheap ones.... At $599 it is not customer friendly enough to make the casual customer buy it, plus when they don't see $200 worth of extra graphics over 360 it makes it a clearer choice. Plus not many casual customers own an HDTV, let alone one that supports 1080p. The Wii is very price friendly, has a whole new way of playing, so fun your parents and grandparents might want to play! Wii also doesn't require an HDTV. SONY from the start should of just offered a BR-PS3 and a non BR-PS3, and I can guarantee they would be doing at least 3x better than they are doing right now. And now finding out the PS3 is not able to play BR-Java, they claim a firmware or plug in adapter to fix it, doesn't do well for the people that were planning on buying it for BR movies.... Point is SONY forgot the customer that put them on the top with the PS1/PS2. When you are on top of the world as long as SONY was with PS1/PS2 you think you can do anything and your fan base will always follow.