Sony are copycats, officially confirmed xD

1.No the PSP2 is already behind the 8 ball, Sony is the third place handheld competitor and they risk slipping even further behind as Android becomes increasingly important in handheld gaming in response to Apple. It doesn't take a stretch to see the PSP2 is facing an uphill battle. Sony's own games are nowhere near as platform driving or defining as Nintendos own. Nintendo has published more 20M sellers than Sony has 5M games.

2. The 3DS says otherwise. Sure the DS didn't do the third party thing as well but the third parties are there in force for the 3DS so the same will likely apply to the Wii successor.

3. The PS2 was the leading console by far, it was the highest selling home console, the PS3 is not the PS2. It will also likely never get to $149 because Sony owned the majority of the I.P of the PS2. whereas they have a lot of fixed costs with the PS3. They have to pay: Blu Ray royalties, DVD royalties, Rambus for XDR, IBM/Toshiba for Cell since they divested their interests, Nvidia for RSX and they have to put in a $30 HDD, finally Blu Ray is nowhere near as mature a technology as DVD so they will still pay a premium for the next 2-3 years at the least.

Soon, PS will be just another Walkman

1. Well...first of all, a third place in the handheld market doesn't really exist. People claim that cell phones (or at least iPhone/ iPod Touch) are in the handheld business as well, but one criteria is missing: no one buys an iPhone to play games, it's an addition, not more. The main reason why to buy a certain console are the games, and that's no the case with phones. But that's not important here, just wanted to mention it.

It may be that Sony's games are not as platform driving as Nintendo ones, but seriously... has the PSP sold bad in your opinion?

2. I wouldn't be so sure about that, but we will see.

3. Do you think that anyone expected the PS2 to go down to 99$ one day? Some probably wished it would happen, but no one expected it. I don't expect a price cut this year btw, but next it will probably drop to 199$ and then anything can happen.

1. Noone buys a car with the intention of sleeping in it and yet more people sleep in cars than caravans. It doesn't matter what the intent of the purchase is, what matters is the result. The iRange has greater revenue and unit sales than the PSP so therefore its the 2nd best market for handheld games.

The PSP hasn't sold badly, but the games have. Its the problem of having a multipurpose console in that not everyone will use it to play games.

3. I can't speculate on peoples expectations. In any case whether the PS3 will be sold for $199 is still up in the air, thats a 33% reduction in price and the component savings which have made up the majority of the $500 reduction in cost since launch are the easiest. From now on the fixed costs play a much larger role in the price of the PS3 as the make up a larger proportion of the whole.

1. I still don't see it as a handheld and I think many (probably most) would agree with me, but... let's not argue about that right now.

3. Well, the PS3 is profitable now and Sony is supposed to make a profit of around 50$ (we can't really check how much it actually is). Lowering the production costs even more would definitly be easy for Sony, it just takes time. So I think that a drop even to 149$ is possible before next gen consoles arrive.

Sony will do just fine entering the market a year or two late. An extra year or two will give them an accurate read of the market and allow them to penetrate niche areas of the market underserved by either Nintendo or Microsoft. My only concern is a repeat of the PS3 where Sony waits a year later because they are building the PS4 to be a behemoth of a gaming machine very few can afford.

The only major downside I can see for Sony entering the market late is a lack of quality 3rd party games because if you are reading the tea leaves with the 3DS, Nintendo is pushing hard to get back into the "hardcore" market which had been an almost exclusive niche of Sony's during the PS1 era until Microsoft entered and split the "hardcore" market in half during the Gamecube, PS2, and Xbox era. Nintendo getting serious and back to it's "hardcore" roots will present a hurdle for both Sony and Microsoft, but moreso for Sony because Sony has no brand comparable to Halo or Gears of War.

You guys should really only quote what is necessary instead of having some huge tower like post.... anyways this really isn't a smart move imo look at this gen and what happened.Even if you have a strong launch for your system at the start other competitors having been out eariler will take a chunk of your fanbase away. I'm suprised that microsoft did so well with console sales in only the 2nd gen of their system.

And to all the people talking about coping it's only natural if a system does something to improve a mechanic,whether it's  anolog sticks or home buttons on controllers taking them from your competition and adding all thsoe improvements to your system is a good thing.

Yeah i really doubt this will be your last gen of gaming. And talking sales is a good thing even if the 360 had a 1 year lead launch to have generated this many fans in a small space of time is crazy. Don't expect anyone to get killed off soon.

LOL!!! I'll just pretend I didn't read this ignorance.