It won't affect sales greatly, but Sony will finally have justification for their decision to integrate BluRay in the PS3, which will be a good thing for them.

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/01/02/hodson.uk.blue.ray.hd.dvd.cnn
This is the section on high def formats.

The guy says that it seems that Warner brothers is hinted to be bluray exclusive, which will make bluray have 70% of the movie industry. That could almost end the "format war" as we know it, unless microsoft start selling vista and office on HD-DVDs. Now that would make it interesting again.

Short answer: if the format war is decided within the next 12 months, yes, I think this will have an affect on the console war long term. If the format war takes longer to resolve itself, then I think it will not. Blu Ray players will be considerably cheaper than a PS3 by then (150+ dollars) and people won't be buying a system for Blu Ray 4 years in to a generation.

It MUST have an effect early in the generation, or it doesn't have an effect at all.  

PS: HDTV sales have completely erupted in parts of europe. In the nordic countries, 50 % of all TV's will be HDTV's by 2010. Please don't tell me that no one buys HDTV's just because you can't afford one (me neither, yet)...

Since neither Microsoft nor Nintendo banked on a new disc format for their games, it doesn't matter. It only really matters if Blu-Ray were to lose. If Blu-Ray started to sink, Sony would be screwed for the next generation. With the PS4, Sony would either have to stick with BR or go dual format in order to have BC. Honestly, I still think both BR and HD-DVD are going to be very minor formats for a long time. DVDs are cheaper and no less convenient. Also, many older movies just don't benefit from HD.

Mummelmann said: PS: HDTV sales have completely erupted in parts of europe. In the nordic countries, 50 % of all TV's will be HDTV's by 2010. Please don't tell me that no one buys HDTV's just because you can't afford one (me neither, yet)...

 They don't buy them for HD they buy them because they are flat

Obviously someone here hasn't had the thrill of seeing Caddyshack in high definition. You don't know what you're missing.

That will quickly change especially next year when everything starts to change over to digital. HDTV looks the best when something is running in it's native resolution. There is a world of difference between an HD signal compared to SD. Because of next year the battle is not just between Blu-ray vs HD DVD but also Cable vs DirectTV. Right now even if you don't have digital cable you can watch local channels in HD on HDTV with digital tuners.

i doubtit mabby a few more ps3 sold

I own Unforgiven on Blu Ray. The browns are so much brownier!