I recently pointed out what I believe is Microsoft's greatest strength: networking with other companies. With recent evidence in hand, I'd like to point out what I believe is Sony's greatest strength: company-wide integration.

I'm sure some will scoff at this (and/or point out why they think Blu-Ray was a terrible idea for the PS3), but as a general rule, I think Sony's attempts to synthesize all of their different projects is extremely savvy, and really helps them gain leverage in many situations. Let me give a recent and clear example. Examine this chain of events:

Sony includes Blu-Ray in the Playstation 3
Blu-Ray gains HD market share
Warner Brothers goes Blu Ray exclusive
Blu Ray apparently wins HD format war
Sony increases prices of stand alone Blu Ray players

In this sequence of events, they managed to win a format war, and then consequently increase the price of the players. Why would they do this? It's really an extremely savvy move, and nets them two benefits at once:

1) All standalone players earn more profit (or perhaps,, make less losses) than they were before, and have little or no effect on the HD format war, as Blu Ray's position now seems secure.
2) The bump in prices once again makes the Playstation 3 the most attractive Blu Ray player, and PS3 sales benefit.

So in other words, they managed to increase their HD format profits and increase their video game marketshare simultaneously. This is an excellent example of what Sony really knows how to do: combine all their different ventures. Another wonderful example is Singstar -- why has no one made a great Singstar competitor? It seems like such an easy thing, doesn't it? Just include songs, and put them on the 360 or Wii! Why has no one done this? Because none of the other companies have access to the enormous backlog of songs that Sony does, through the Sony record labels.

So let's go through another chain here: Sony music division drives sales of Sony Video Games division (through Singstar). Sony Video Games division drives sales of Sony movies division (through Blu Ray). All three of these, in consequence, drive sales of Sony's High Definition Bravia Televisions, as people with new HD video game systems and movie players want an HD television to go with it. Just think of how effectively these different divisions help each other.

It's all interconnected so neatly and effectively that Sony can constantly leverage one of their media chains to assist another. The Warner Bros -> Blu Ray player price hike is another extremely effective example of that, I think.  

There are other manufacturers making stand-alone Blu-ray players that are already cheaper than the PS3, so if Sony chooses to raise the cost of theirs making the PS3 the cheapest SONY manufactured player they are just cutting off the nose to spite the face.

They increased the price of players? Since when is THAT good business?

I posted a story on this a few days ago, and mark my words I will never buy a brand new Blu-ray player because thats just shady business. Interestingly Toshiba just released the latest MSRP of 149 on their A3 player, meaning you may very well start seeing this player mass marketed at $99 at the big stores like Wal-mart and Best Buy. There still selling well despite the Warner announcement. I wouldn't be surprised if by the middle of the year or so you might see some of them Blu exclusive studios take note to how many players are selling at that low price. I wouldn't be one bit surprised if this format war is far from over.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-14-2008/0004735440&EDATE=#

Another major Sony strength: in-house game development and 2nd party exclusivity contracts.

I believe that the ps3 will inevitably pass the 360, and it will happen primarily because of the ps3's game selection. Since most 3rd party games are multiplat, it is left to 1st and 2nd party developers to pump out the exclusives that make each console more attractive than the other. Sony has this in droves, with development studios like Naughty Dog, Polyphony Digital, Incognito, Team Ico, Sucker Punch, Zipper Interactive, etc. all employed by SCE, and other developers like Insomniac, Media Molecule, Ninja Theory, etc. all 2nd party.

MS simply cannot repeat in this regard. Many of their 2nd party studios have recently been snatched up by bigger development companies (Bizarre, BioWare), and of the few 1st party studios they have, many tend to focus on the PC rather than the 360, like Ensemble Studios.

And another thing that helps Sony is that of the few 3rd party exclusives left, the ps3 happens to have the bigger ones on it's side, like MGS4, FFXIII, and Tekken 6.

Now that Sony's in-house development has focused primarily on the ps3, the games will start to come in full force.

Like I said in your original thread, they didn't raise the price.  It was put on sale for $299 right before Christmas, and the price went back up after Christmas, BEFORE the Warner announcement.  The MSRP has stayed the same the entire time.

Also, may I please have some proof of your comment I bolded?  There's a reason Toshiba's players have dropped so low in price, and it's not because they're selling well.

 This is another very good point. 

The multi-genre / multi-cultural emphasis is the greatest strength of the PS brand. When I go to 360 forums, the central emphasis is Halo, and maybe Gears of War. All the other games come second to that. Since I really don't like Halo (yes, I owned it and sold it and just not for me), I feel a little out of the loop among the 360 user base and market emphasis. I'm buying the jRPGs which are doing very poorly on the console so far.

Going to PS3 forums, people have their different games they like and alot of times from different genres. Some people may hate FF, while others love it. Others may like Killzone, GT, MGS, etc.

I think MS is figuring out that they need to have more variety. But right now, it seems like they are just throwing a little support to their other games on the side of their big Halo emphasis. They really need to put some more emphasis into their other projects from different genres, if they want to break from the Shooter Box stereotype.

 We'll have to see next week.  This was the week prior to the Warner announcement.