I won't respond to individual comments but i'd say in today's market, it will be tough for PS3 to pull out.
1. Economy is slowing down - PS3 does't have the price point
2. BD Players are coming down - there are 199.00 players. More loss of price point
3. BD In and of itself has been slow to go. The death of the HD DVD/BD war seemed to just have a collective sigh on the industry and nothing has changed. Slow to release, expensive and gimmicky products (and movies)
4. PS3 Services - free is free, but when you like to game, the few bucks xbox live cost still offers a better service that gamers can feel a part of. They see the few bucks a month as an investment on their hobby of choice. PS3 Home has been slow to start and frankly too little too late, the entire virtual worlds thing is passe if you ask me - in the sense that Sony is designing it. Simple user to user interactions and seemless integration from games to media is where its at. Adding complexity of virtual worlds may be some peoples idea of gaming bliss, but not mine :)
The dreamcast was still selling well when it was abandoned - mostly because the financial crises that Sega of America faced and the fact Sega didn't want to seek out capital but rather divest & restructure.
I guess it also comes down to commodities. PC Gaming is still based on DVD, so the format alone won't sway people that aren't already swayed. Xbox gaming is just so affordable and for the price the best bang for buck that many people can experience and the premium that the PS3 affords over the Xbox 360 is often ignored or not utilized. I mean, *EVERYPONE* i know that has a PS3 only has a ps3 to play a few random sports games while a select minority watch movies. Most still having an SDTV - they just bought the ps3 because they had a ps2.
On the flipside, i think it would have been certain death of the PS3 had the Xbox 360 not gone through its RROD horror phase.
This console war has been the best one to date if you ask me. Competition has been fierce, the players have been fighting it out and the consumers ultimately win - game wise. I think betting the format war was too risky and the slwoing economy may put a nail in that coffin as more people invest in gaming as family time and cost savings of not going out and spending cash they don't have. (unless your that addicted you have to have every new game/toy/movie or what not..)
