thoughts?...

[videoholic]

What features do they have that you would get rid of to bring down the cost?

And don\'t say Blue Ray because that is by far the cheapest bargain for a blue ray player on the market.

What features do they have that you would get rid of to bring down the cost?

And don\'t say Blue Ray because that is by far the cheapest bargain for a blue ray player on the market.

Blue Ray.

The point being making a game machine should have been the biggest concern not movie playback.

Yes, I think it\'s fair to say that the Blue Ray feature shouldn\'t have been included.  That is certainly the main item increasing the cost and delaying the launch.  It doesn\'t matter that the PS3 is the most affordable BR player right now.  That won\'t be the case one year from now.  The BR standard hasn\'t been well adopted yet, and it\'s not a "must have" feature for most consumers.  They are forcing their customers to swallow a higher price for a feature many of them don\'t care about.  They should have focused on consolidating their position on their core business - video games.
 
Also, they could have unbundled the 802.11 wifi support, and gone with a smaller universal hard drive.  I think the Microsoft approach is superior; their cheaper model can be upgraded to the same specs as the more expensive model with add-on peripherals.

I like shiny, expensive, powerful, feature-filled equipment.  Sony hit a homerun with me.

I know I\'m in the minority but I\'m not too concerned.  I got my Resistance, blu-ray, and will soon be enjoying tekken DR on the big screen.  It\'s a shame Sony couldn\'t find a way to make a $399 model to get more marketshare but I\'ll be enjoying the PS3 regardless.

[Paul2]

It doesn\'t matter that the PS3 is the most affordable BR player right now.  That won\'t be the case one year from now.  The BR standard hasn\'t been well adopted yet, and it\'s not a "must have" feature for most consumers.  They are forcing their customers to swallow a higher price for a feature many of them don\'t care about.  They should have focused on consolidating their position on their core business - video games.

I am actually one of those people that are really happy that sony included the Blu Ray drive for the PS3.  Some games can really use that extra storage.  And by the time you know it, in the upcoming 3 or 4 years, many games will really take advantage of that extra space.

By the time Blu Ray Players are getting cheaper, so would PS3.  So, its all good to me.  And don\'t forget that PS3 is the world first Blu Ray player that have HDMI v1.3 connection while other blu ray players in the market right now only have HDMI v1.2.  The benefits of HDMI v.13 are many...such as deep color, can stream lossless audio codecs from dolby and dts...

I am actually one of those people that are really happy that sony included the Blu Ray drive for the PS3. Some games can really use that extra storage. And by the time you know it, in the upcoming 3 or 4 years, many games will really take advantage of that extra space.
 
By the time Blu Ray Players are getting cheaper, so would PS3. So, its all good to me. And don\'t forget that PS3 is the world first Blu Ray player that have HDMI v1.3 connection while other blu ray players in the market right now only have HDMI v1.2. The benefits of HDMI v.13 are many...such as deep color, can stream lossless audio codecs from dolby and dts...

I don\'t follow every post around here, so I don\'t remember... did you buy a PS3, Paul?

[Paul2]

not yet.  Like some of you, I am waiting for the price drop this time around.

Man 400 is too much for console and  600 is just crazy. There has to be a huge leap to just warrant going out and buying just because. And you can get the same graphics on a cheaper xbox 360.

I like having an all in one device sometimes. Watching a dvd on my system is sometimes is easy. But the BR argument makes no sense to me yet. I don\'t see were there has been a huge turn around for BR movies. I don\'t think people care all that much. I know earlier adapters and tech heads are exicted about BR technology.

But for the most part who else cares. They should have just added the blueray player as an add-on. With it being their technology and trying to push the format noway that was going to happen.

Man 400 is too much for console and 600 is just crazy

you\'re a cheap fool. A lot of people think PS3 would cost 200$ without the BR player, well it\'s all lies. There\'s other things, such as 256 megs ram of DDR2, a 60 gig HD, a processor that sony imb and thosiba all spent 5 billions in R&D.

The BR cost nothing to Sony IF they succeed in making it the "next" format.

When hot games such as GT and FF or GTA start to hit the shelves, people will buy the PS3 regardless of the price.

[Titan]

Thankfully, Titan hasn\'t trolled that one yet.

Sounds like a challenge

[Titan]

Also, they could have unbundled the 802.11 wifi support, and gone with a smaller universal hard drive.  I think the Microsoft approach is superior; their cheaper model can be upgraded to the same specs as the more expensive model with add-on peripherals.

Yeah but if you have to upgrade a 400 dollar console with a hard drive, wifi, etc, you are still eventually paying close to 600, especially for a hard drive with high capacity. I\'d rather pay 600 and just have it all done and over with and not have to worry about upgrading.

When hot games such as GT and FF or GTA start to hit the shelves, people will buy the PS3 regardless of the price.

I disagree.  I predict that unless Sony reduces the price of the PS3 before those titles arrive, those releases won\'t make a big enough difference to enable Sony to maintain their previous market share.
 
There IS a price ceiling beyond which consumers will not purchase the product.  If the product is unique and has little competition, the ceiling can be very high.  This assumes that the uniqueness (Blue Ray, for example) is something the consumer values.  I think at this time it isn\'t
 
However, in the current market, the price ceiling is lower because of competition from the Xbox360 and Wii.  If another product offers 70%-80% of the functionality for a substantially lower price, then that is a competitive weakness for Sony.
 
Sony is further hindered by the X360 having captured market share for one full year before the PS3 launch.  How can a consumer like myself justify paying $600 for a PS3, when I already own an Xbox360?  One or two exclusive titles is not a good enough reason.  
 
I think Sony did not produce a product different enough and better enough than the Xbox360 to warrant the increased price.

yea, i have owned a ps1 and a ps2, and i never ever thought of buying a xbox, but one came into work cheap, and i thought i would give it a try, i also bought a cheap gamecube second had, had a few games...

but more to the point im more than happy with my xbox 360, and cant even think of buying a ps3, i mean even with a price drop, and it being second hand, i cant ever imagion it being that cheap.

ive not seen enough games to make me think of buying a ps3, and there is still that hope that after a while they will coe out onthe 360


the only game i will mis is mgs, but like i said, im hoping thy put it on the 360

i have no want for a blueray or hd player, dvds look fine to me on my hd tv.... and there isnt a film i can think of that i would wanna spend extra money on, compared to a dvd.

most films i like are not big special effects type movies, so i have no real need for seeing super images, i mean dvd is more than good enough!

The fact is 600 is to much for a game machine. I\'ll buy one but that\'s because I like new tech even if it\'s too expensive for its own good.

[clips]

even when the price drop happens, it\'s not going to be that significant,...sony will only drop the price by what? 30 bucks at the most? $570.00...looks like i\'ll be waiting for two price drops,...the ps2 isn\'t even $99.00 yet...that is crazy....when ps3 came out, it should\'ve almost immediately dropped to $99.00 bucks.