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I do not believe people buy these video game consoles to watch movies- I am not talking about the early adopters here, I am talking about the typical consumer. The people who moaned when they switched from their VHS to DVD. Yes, we celebrated- they moaned. We have different priorities than the mass market.
A common belief at the moment is that Sony will certainly lose their position as number one in the games market, at least as far as the new generation of consoles is concerned (the PS2 actually continues to sell in huge numbers). History is not scared of repeating itself in the games industry, and Sony`s arrogance, along with an overpriced games console - since that is indeed all gamers see it as - is really throwing them into the same rut that got Nintendo and SEGA into an awful lot of trouble in the late 1990s (which resulted in them losing out to the original Playstation at the time ironically enough). This won`t mean the PS3 will be a failure by any stretch of the imagination, as the brand name remains too strong, but where they will be in the games industry six to eight years from now when these companies deem it time to bring out a new wave of consoles will be interesting to see. There were some analysts recently who predicted this would in fact lead to there being no Playstation4, but these soothsayers change their opinions on a weekly basis.

It`s difficult to gauge how much of a sure thing Bluray`s exclusive Hollywood backers consider the PS3 to actually be. I`m not sure whether they`re dumb enough to believe millions will use it for hi-def movies, or that they accept only a miniscule percentage of so many millions owners might do so, which may be all they want if they`re just hoping the PS3 could act as a springboard for the format and ensure a user base of a few hundred thousand consistently buying Bluray movies via the PS3 whilst simultaneously raising public awareness of the Bluray format alongside sales of standalone players to keep things afloat.

The Xbox 360`s HD DVD add on drive faces a similar conundrum. Microsoft have managed to ship 45,000 of the drives in the US alone in November, which combined with previous sales of Toshiba A1 and XA1 players probably brings the total of HD DVD players in use to an estimated 130,000 (150,000 at most I`d wager), but will sales of the drive continue and be consistent over the Christmas period and into 2007? I`m not too sure. My belief is that both the 360`s add on drive, and the PS3 will give each format a nudge, but by no means will they dictate the outcome of either HD format`s success.

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I truly believe that the mass market will not care about the PS3 engineering beauty- which apparently is like comparing a Porsche to a pick up in the case of the XBox. What people care about is doing the job- in which case the pick up works just fine. And how many people really have the ability to see the graphic difference between these two consoles? I doubt many do or care. They want to play the hot games. As a non gamer I don`t know what they are anymore.
The real argument amongst gamers when comparing the PS3 to the Xbox 360 is really driven by content. Exclusive content really drives band loyalty amongst gamers both in the East and the West. What`s interesting is a single game can cost tens of millions of dollars to produce now, and for a lot of developers and publishers they cannot ignore the fact that releasing their games on multiple formats is better for them as independent companies.

Aside from the DS and the Wii, which are platforms so unique they command versions of games you simply can`t play elsewhere on another machine, many developers are thinking long and hard before throwing all their eggs into one basket as far as the PS3 and 360 go, since the hardware performance is so strikingly similar. As a consequence we`re seeing some major game brands like the Grand Theft Auto series, Pro Evolution Soccer and others drawing themselves away from becoming synonymous with the Playstation and becoming multi-format brands. This means a key draw of these consoles for many gamers in deciding to buy one over the other is first party content, content produced under the banners of Microsoft and Sony. It`s not like either company was unaware of this change in the industry either, as both, particularly Microsoft, have been quick in recent years to buy out existing developers (Microsoft bought Rare and Lionhead for example). This basically expands their arsenal of exclusive content. If a gamer wants the Halo series for example, there`s only one place they can turn.

What`s interesting is how many former exclusives created by independent developers the Playstation brand is losing altogether. The biggest RPG games series in Japan is a wonderful series called Dragon Quest. The 7th game had surfaced on the original Playstation, the 8th on the Playstation 2 and so naturally the world expected the 9th installment to come to the Playstation 3. Instead, it`s actually coming to the Nintendo DS. It`s amazing how Nintendo`s back to basics approach in putting fun backing into gaming is paying off. As a gamer I couldn`t be more delighted as the Wii and DS are reaching out to such a wide audience. There`s clearly a shift amongst existing gamers in what they want now, and the Playstation3 will find it hard to be a dominant when many might consider the combination of a Wii and a 360 suitable to cover all their gaming desires.


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Correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe that Sony has the most to lose by a very wide margin. If BD fails, then the Playstation line takes a massive hit as well. Sony would essentially be looking destitute if BD was to fail.
Far from it. The PS3 is pretty exempt from Bluray failing if you think about it. The console is a high demand product that will ship in the millions, which will consequently drive component costs down, and BD-Rom disc replication will always be active regardless of whether Bluray fails as a movie delivery format or not due to the fact all PS3 games are being manufactured to Bluray discs. Granted these replication costs would drop even faster and be even more attractive for Sony and games publishers if Bluray in general is a success in areas outside of the Playstation 3, but the console itself can probably do enough to sustain its manufacturing in a way not to dissimilar to that of the PS2 (i.e. not actually make a profit on hardware for at least five years into its life, but instead make its money from sales of games and accessories).

With the exception of the Gamecube, the Wii, and the DS all from Nintendo, consoles like the Xbox, the PS2, and now the PSP, Xbox 360 and PS3 are made and sold with the acceptance they`re not going to make a profit on the hardware sales for many, many years. Instead, the revenue comes from the software and for PS3 games we`re talking millions of BD-Roms being replicated so I really don`t foresee them running into any real trouble if Bluray fails for movies.