I think seeing how the DVD feature was a huge selling point for the PS2, Sony was planning on introducing Blu-Ray to the masses for years in advance. HD-DVD format didn't matter since Sony was on the competing side.

What Sony should do a few years down the road is sell PS3s in the Blu-Ray isle real cheap.

I think Microsoft going with DVD on 360 was a bad decision. They should have at least used HD-DVD but they didn't really plan too far ahead. Sony obviously saw that DVDs weren't going to be enough for many games anymore. I'm just glad Microsoft is going with Blu-Ray next-gen. Even Nintendo is using 25GB discs.

i think it would have been better on sales but if Xbox did the same thing not as many people would come to PS3 as much as they did for Blu-Ray. and Microsoft would then have a shot at using some format like Blu-Ray and overshadowing Sony. so in the end releasing Blu-Ray technology off the bat was good for Sony. maybe not for the Welfare people but for Sony.

Do you realize the orginal Xbox was also a DVD player?

I am going to revise what I said. After thinking about how many people I know who bought a PS3 because it could play Blu-rays.

So having a Blu-ray significantly helped the PS3's sales. But the format war significantly damaged disc sales, the industry, and launched the door to streaming.

Also, I think Microsoft pushed streaming, and their 1080P 5.1 streaming more because they had to counter blu-ray.

But at the same time it was $600 so if it had dvd instead of bluray its very possible it would have retailed for $400 and sales would have been alot better due to that

Yes, they were even more than that for a time!  I was also thinking that if there had been one HD format, the drives would have dropped in price faster.

Plus if there was one format, consumers would have bought more of them, allowing them to expand and lower manufacturing cost.

God of War and Uncharted would have been been fine on DVDs. Worst case scenario, more disc swaps and FMVs wouldn't be as sharp. Not a single PS3 game showed we needed Bluray this gen.

Not using Bluray would have benefited Sony financially and a cheaper PS3 would have been a greater success.

I think an even better questions is this:

If the Xbox 360 shipped with an internal HD-DVD a whole year before Blu-Ray hit would HD-DVD have won the format war?

I don't know the answer, but HD-DVD is the superior format so maybe if it came standard in Xbox 360 it would have given it the push it needed.

Why was using DVD a bad decision? It hasn't stopped 360 games from looking as good as PS3 games, it kept the 360 price lower and more profitable.

Early on it seemed like Bluray was gonna be a huge advantage for the PS3. But you can't point out a single game we needed Bluray for. Worst case scenario, more disc swaps if they used DVDs on PS3.

It seemed like MS wasn't thinking ahead sticking with DVD, but it worked out great for them.

That is a good question, perhaps it would have drug out the format war for a few years