Osnabrueck

Personally, I think the BluRay player is one of the most compelling elements in the PlayStation package because, from a certain point of view, it's an amazing value. You can't buy a standalone BluRay player for less than $1,000, so it's sorta like Sony's Trojan horse gift to the world of consumer electronics.

On the other hand, the BluRay/HD DVD battle is in its infancy right now, and it remains to be seen which format becomes the dominant one. It's a coin toss for consumers, because neither patform offers any real benefit over the other - in fact, the only reason we're dealing with two competiting formats is because Sony and Toshiba couldn't strike a deal.

So either its great, or it's worthless. If HD DVD wins the format war then it makes the inclusion of the BluRay drive all that more awkward. In the interest of not muddying their marketing message Sony doesn't really make much noise about the BluRay drive's abilities - a shame, because I'm sure there's a small but significant group of consumer electronic junkies who could be convinced to buy a PS3 for junior if they knew that they'd also be the first one on the block to own a BluRay player.

I remember back when the SegaCD came out, I used it more for playing audio CDs than I did for playing games. In fact, (remember it was 1992) it was a major selling point for me because I didn't yet have a CD player.

( I also remember the hilariously bad promotional CD+G disks that came with the thing, that had a mish-mosh of bad karaoke programs. )

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Mikael

The Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD war might also end like the DVD-/DVD+ battle. That means hybrid discs that can be played in both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players. Here's the first hybrid player by LG: - ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
The "hybrid compromise" would be quite complicated but it's still better than ending up to situation where the losing side of the war would have to take huge financial losses.

Osnabrueck

Wow, thanks for pointing that out bmer. I didn't know such a thing existed - one would think that Sony would restrict the manufacture of such a device. Figure, if it costs $1,200 right now, it'll be 25% of that amount or less in about 3 years.

Well, if a "Hyrbid Compromise" ends up becoming the standard the industry adopts it'll be pretty hilarious, because the proliferation of such players would completely neutralize the need to market either format. If things go that way I guess the winners would be both Toshiba and Sony, since they'd both reap the benefit of licencing their technologies to hardware makers and Hollywood.

On the other hand, there would probably be a smaller slice of the royalty pie to go around, since the industry will probably gang up somehow twist some arms to keep the status quo of what they're used to paying.

Who knows, both parties could end up making just as much they would have negotiating before bringing their formats to market. Ha ha!

I think the Hybrid route is pretty cool because its a rare example of a market, unable to decide on needlessly competitive products, turning the tables and neutralizing the competition.

The Artist

its coming out 23rd March in Sweden.. I'm gonna get it.. even if it means war

BMW Power

Its the same here in South Africa

The Artist

ohh cool
they will ONLY ship 1million units to the WHOLE europe..

Yannis

With the prices so high i doubt if they will be able to sell all of them.

That said i might also buy one and use it as a Blu Ray player.

The Artist

1million in whole europe..
i belive they will be able.. lets see

Mikael

1 million isn't going to be enough. The shortage of components has delayed the launch and for the same reason they are only going to offer the more expensive 60 GB version in Europe. I think the price is still too high compared to other markets.

siko

Sony
.................................................. .....


I hate since they announced the insulting price of the PS3... so @#$*'em

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