Thats not in wikipedia so i wouldn't know. I was just sure that the person i quoted was wrong so i did some googeling.

Yes, you are right. But Sony is far from owning bluray like the OP implies. By proffesional estimates Sony owns less than 30% of blu-ray IP, and they don't even own the most out of all the companies with Panasonic owning more than Sony does. I'm not sure how much it costs to license a blu-ray drive, but when DVD players became mainstream it only cost $4-$5 to license one. And ~$1 per console over ten years isn't really much to brag about. 

And from what I've heard they own more disc patents than anything. So Panasonic would probably be making more off of them. 

Sony is on the board of directors with 18 other companies. 

1. Unless the platform flops. The hard copies of games don't sell, or digital sales do not justify the operating budget. The cost isn't so small if things go badly, and Sony has to incur losses. The best possible scenario isn't the only scenario there is where the Vita is concerned. There just aren't enough units in the hands of consumers to be thinking the product is in any way locked in for the future. I would also like to say don't sight the PS3 as a success story.  The PS3 didn't gain its traction on merit alone. It gained traction, because Sony was willing to lose a shit load of money.

2. Did I miss something, and Microsoft announced they were using BluRay. I am going to point something out now, and it may come as a bit of a shock to you. It doesn't actually net Sony much if anything. Others have pointed out that it is a association, but what others haven't pointed out is that Sony was making money off of the DVD license in the 360. So its just trading one royalty for another. Anyway speaking to market share, and the licensing fees. The problem with BluRay is the price point. People still buy DVDs, because they are cheaper. To really gain traction the cost of BluRay discs need to go down, and if the prices go down then the licensing fees will have to go down as well. Over time the profit per disc is going to go down for Sony, and with digital distribution, and streaming really taking off. The market for discs in general is probably going to suffer in the long run.

3. I see no signs of Microsoft running out of money any time soon, and I haven't heard of Microsoft running at a loss well ever. They seem to have a lot of cash to burn, and this is Microsoft they love to corner markets for maximum exploitation. As for Nintendo I swear somebody told me they print money. Nintendo does have the resources to attack from many angles that are not specifically hardware oriented. It may be atypical of them, but they could go on a developer buying spree, or start charging less for their games. Depriving Sony of games for their platform, or making Sony's platform look like a ripoff.

4. I have explained this before, and I suppose I need to explain it again. Most consoles in the second or third world are purchases through the grey market. Not through the official channel, because in the case of Sony the official channel costs much more. When a local can buy a imported model for three hundred dollars less then what is available at retail. They will overwhelmingly tend towards saving money over a nearly worthless warranty. Anyway importing seems to be the wave of the future instead of localization in second and third world markets. Which doesn't really favor one manufacturer over another.

1.i ddon't expect the Vita to be either a huge success or flop, buddy and again you keep thinking in extremes here.  I personally expect it to do only sslightly or somewhat better than the psp did in comparison to the ds this generation.  But even if it achieves that, the things that iI've mentioned wwouldn't be contradicted or invalidated at all.

2. No, the bBluray thing is an assumption on my part, however msft is positioning the 360 as a mmedia device and iI expect them to try to improve on that next gen.  LOL, perhaps you think that they will just use DVDs again next gen, well that wwouldn't work, as next gen's games will probably be too bbig for DVDs and msft would be stuck with a sorry product.

3. I never made my statement so extreme as to say that Microsoft would be running out of money, but rather said/meant that the days of msft living large seem to be over.  It isn't growing and competitors are slowly stealing their market base and I can get into this further if you wish, but for now, realize that I simply said that msft's financial dominance that we saw this gen wouldn't apply to the same degree in the timeframe that we will see in the next gen.
4. Ok, well if you remove cost from the manufactufacturer or source you should remove cost to the consumer all else equal.  I mean the distributor wouldn't be taking in more of its share in a scenario of a die shrink and slimmer model so I don't see how your point really makes sense,  dodece

Meh - Blu-Ray has been out nearly 6 years now and is barely scraping out a 15% unit sales marketshare - which if the $5 bargain bin dvds found everywhere were tracked would lower that marketshare even more.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/market-analysis/sales-report-week-ended-062312

I say MS should go the pc route and put hds in every model and use dvd drives - both are extremely cheap now. That would take care of DD and physical media.

People's hard drives will fill up quick that way, and/or this would require more hard drive space and make the whole unit larger, and the 15% thing is true, but having another console will push the number significantly higher

@dallas

1. The only reason you view my perspective to be extreme is, because you dislike the implications. We are discussing a very competitive marketplace. Where portable gaming devices more often then not fail to survive their first year on the market. This is really the norm rather then a exception. Exactly how is saying that the usual could happen one more time in anyway a extreme viewpoint. Especially when the market is only getting more competitive.

2. Seriously your going the my way or the highway route. Your just assuming it is the most viable or desirable of the options available to Microsoft. When the answer is it probably isn't. You want to know how unimportant this is to consumers. I haven't seen any of my online friends actually watch a DVD on their 360. The majority of the time they are streaming content. Microsoft can remove the feature entirely, and nobody would notice or particularly care that it is gone. There are a lot of equally viable technologies Microsoft can choose from, and it isn't as if the need exists on a technical standpoint. The majority of games don't even use all the space on a standard DVD, and with Hard drives getting bigger all the time installing is quickly becoming the norm. Installed games run better on the whole, and it saves strain on the machine.

3. Once again did I miss something. Microsoft still dominates the operating system market, business software, and other software architectures. They aren't being pushed out of markets they owned. They are finding competition in new markets. Gaming is a new market for them, but a pivotal market. Microsoft has put a lot of money into tying gaming into their overall strategy. So yeah don't expect Microsoft to be pulling back here. They aren't just making new gaming studios on a whim. They fully intend to make gaming into a selling point for many of their products. Its going to be an advantage moving forward.

4. The point is there isn't a competitive advantage to be had. Consumers have equal access, and Sony angling for manufacturing efficiency. Doesn't necessarily trump the new financing strategy coming out of Microsoft. If the goal of more efficiency is to make a more cost effective product at a lower price point. Then Microsoft is getting the same effect from offering a installment plan. They cancel each other out. Chances are that Sony will not be making any more per unit sold then they were before.

I just wanted to point out that this is incorrect.  Have you not noticed that no one really cares about Windows phones or tablets, and that people use those as much or more than desktops these days?  Also, the more that people get used to the idea of not using Windows devices on their mobile devices, the easier it will be for them not to use it for their home PCs.   When Google finally gets around to launching Android out to the home market for free, it's curtains for Windows.

Window's days are numbered......basically.

Also, BluRay destroyed HDDVD, and for the XBOX 3, Microsoft has no other reasonable-practical choice other than BluRay.

Just sayin.

@persistanthug

Windows strength is in its cross functionality. Specifically when it comes to less mundane tasks. It is what you use if you have real work to get done, and that is why it is still the standard in business, government, and research. There is still a difference between light and heavy use. Your right that Microsoft isn't necessarily the most appreciated by the casual market, but it has been the work horse for decades, and that doesn't look to be changing anytime soon.

Yeah it isn't like proprietary formats are a real option. Oh wait I seem to recall someone using proprietary formats. Who were those guys the companies name starts with the letter N. You know their mascot is a plumber, and they sold the most consoles this generation. Okay all kidding aside the point is that Microsoft's console doesn't need to use a standard movie disc format to succeed.

In fact there are a lot of technologies available that are vastly superior to BluRay. It doesn't necessarily look like BluRay will be the final incarnation of solid media anyway. I am not saying what Microsoft will or will not do. I am just saying they have a lot of options, and given their adamant opposition to the format in the past. It is just that much more likely that they will go with something else. Maybe they could go with some kind of flash drive tech.

• Windows 7 is selling faster than any windows before, so no, Windows days ain't numbered at all.
• MS Servers are growing very healthy outperforming Unix by a biiig margin.
• .NET framework is still the most used one and ASP.NET already has 21.4% of all websites are using it already, coming in 2nd after php.
• MS Office is still here to stay and rightfully so.
• With Skype and Windows Live Messenger MS owns 70% of the market.
  (http://www.winrumors.com/microsofts-instant-messaging-share-now-almost-70-thanks-to-skype/) 

How come people up with stuff like MS is not growing so fast as they used to? MS increased their revenue 25 billion USD over the past 5 years. 5 billion USD INCREASE every year and people say it is weakened. Awesome logic. Compare that to the past 5 years Sony went through and tell me again about the competitive position of Sony.

And lol at the BDA stuff.

When a movie company can make a healthy BluRay business with a product that costs $19.99, I am confident that MS won't suffer from these fees with a product that costs $59.99. People forget that BluRays are using a MS software for compression and I doubt the BDA got that one for free. So MS supporting BluRay wouldn't be a big deal at all.