Which way is the PS3 Trojan Horse Facing?

[mike_intellivision]

A few quick notes.

While I think DJMeister made some good points, I use my Xbox as a DVD player. The PS2 does not work as well and there are some things it will not play. So to say that the PS2 was the only DVD player is not true. ... What is true is that it was the only unit that could play DVDs without any additional purchases. (Remember, the Xbox remote was separate and the system would not function without it). Of course, there are various remotes for various PS2s ... but that's another story.

I was in Wal-Mart today, the lone BR player was only about $20 less than the PS3 (40GB). I didn't check to see if it was upgradable though. But if you talk to a sales drones at game/electronics stores, they will tell you that many of their PS3 sales are for movie playback only and the potential to sell game software has not yet emerged.

(This sounds in some ways like the Nuon -- it was a line of DVD players that had extra gaming elements to them. There was four special versions of movies and a handful of games released for it, such as Tempest 3000 by Jeff Minter. But they fell by the wayside. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuon )

So the cost and technology arguement appears to hold true -- at least for right now. It is the same thing that spurred early PS2 sales in Japan when for over a year it was the least expensive DVD player available in that market. Whether or not though those purchasers of the unit for AV purposes in NA will become gamers (as they appeareed to become -- or maybe always were -- in Japan) is the big Sony software questions. Early indiciations are that many will not ... though that could change.

Mike from Morgantown