SONY lost 3.31 Billion on initial PS3 costs; May never see that money back.

[shams]

One thing I haven't seen touched on yet (BluRay wise):

BluRay is effectively a "higher-quality" DVD. Its also more expensive to manufacture (discs & players), and titles are more expensive to purchase for consumers (than DVD releases, which are dirt cheap now).

But I see this as a catch-22: For me personally, BluRay holds no appeal. For it to appeal, the price of movies AND players would have to come down to near-DVD price - 'cos, as a consumer I don't perceive the quality improvement to be significant price-wise (i.e. "I'll pay more for BluRay, but not MUCH more" - no more than maybe 10% at the moment).

For BluRay to replace DVD, prices are going to have to come down a lot - but the more they do come down, the less profit Sony & consortium members make.

...

With DVD vrs video there was a significant difference in features, quality, shelf life (videos lost clarity over time), etc. People were happy to pay a LOT more for a DVD version of a movie rather than a VHS version.

This just doesn't exist with BluRay vrs DVD. I can't imagine DVD *ever* dying out completely - so that price differential will always be around.