Well from Sony's standing, they're improving but not recovered. Their back up plan and only trump card might be working after all. Here's what I think.

After a 1 year release and having not so good sales on hardware and common sense, software as well. From the start of their release, people we're rampant about the price point and the forced push with blu-ray. Blu-ray as we know it made the price hike of the PS3 (which was also caused by the lack of lenses I think). Unlike the 360 it never forced the push of HD-DVD and the Wii having nothing to do with the format war, making it the cheaper choices for a console. Let's get to the point.

PS3 might have an edge in the long run. If the format war was an ensured victory for the blu-ray then that'd be one less problem to handle. Picture this, mainly DVD's were quickly pushed in the mainstream because of cheap players. And probably one of them is the PS2. I haven't found out yet why the PS2 still selling strong(Is it because of the cheapest console out there?/cheapest DVD player?/gamers who want to catch up with the games they missed?). Any of those reasons contribute to sales. Let's try to think of long run, and let's say 5 years from now people upgraded to HD and Blu-ray did win HD format. The cheapest choice of HD entertainment and future proof player is the PS3. Let's say the games division did well and I'm pretty sure hardcore gamers will want to pick this up and play what they might've missed out on. Sales would still be flow steadily strong even though it's passed it's prime as a game console.

Consider this point of view. Some Hardcore gamers(sony fan boys) might pick up 360 and Wii, but only for games. Let's not put aside that perspective that HD DVD did lose, would those who purchased a 360 be willing to buy an add on HDDVD drive to play movies. Common sense tells me NO(but there are those that who are special). Although the Wii has no format war involvement so it's all about games. How about other subjects, who purchase a PS3 5 years from now. There possible reasons either for Hi Def Movies or catching up on games or even both. So it leaves three options whereas the other two, one or two options. These options I said are those that help sales. In everything you buy there is a motive.

So I think what Sony is doing is focusing in long term run rather than the shorter term. Looking at the game division of PS3, the line up is getting chunky so expect more blood to be drawn. Well that about wraps it all. I hope to hear you're comments on what I think. Thanks.

I agree about the Blu-Ray players getting pushed into the market. What we have to understand is that the more PS3s that get pushed out there, means more Blu-Ray players. People are saying digital distribution is next, but with every PS3 sold, there is one more BD player out there. so that means potentially, one more disc is sold on blu-ray. Since every one sold is a "win" for blu-ray players, the format wars should be ended soon, and the blu-ray capacity of the PS3, plus it being the only 1.1 player will help, plus it being the cheapest will help also. Blu-Ray may very well help push PS3 further, much like DVD in the PS2

I've thought along this line for around 6 months now.

Initially, BR was like a ball and chain holding back the PS3 mainly due to the pricepoint, but now that the PS3 pricepoint is now quite a bit less and looking at how well BR is doing compared to HDDVD. It does in fact look inevitable that BR will win the HDM war with HDDVD.

Now it does look like BR could very well be a major positive for the PS3 as well. I can see people buying the PS3 for 3 different reasons. Either to play games or to play movies or for both. Also because the PS3 is the cheapest and best for value BR player on the market, sales of the PS3 will continue to rise due to HDM and not just games.

Sony IS in fact looking at the longterm with the PS3, but that's not anything new, they've done the same with the PS1 and PS2 and PSP as well.

If BR continues to take off and start replacing DVD as the new medium for movies within households as well as the price of PS3's reducing year upon year, then I fully expect sales of the PS3 to start going through the roof, once there is that crossover.

 From the start it was kind of daunting. Lost a lot of exclusive titles and I mean A LOT. Now I keep on wondering did they intentionally lose those titles? Most of things I read is that they lost those titles because they couldn't negotiate and focused more on Japan.

Even if Sony doesn't win this generation their bluray gamble seems to have paid off. Assuming that there is a crossover from dvd to bluray it's gonna be interesting to see how much money they make from royalties alone.

 Yup, that might've been reality at an even earlier time if they haven't picked up their pace. PS3 is securing it's bigger scope and now maybe, it's focusing on games.

true story. i think this will be the only gen where last place becomes a huge seller

Realistically, how inexpensive can you really expect the PS3 to be in 12 months? If Sony pushes hard they might be able to get it down to $300. By the end of the next holiday season over half of the people who bought a console in the previous generation will have bought a current generation console, and the consumers who are most willing to spend $200 or more on a console will already own one. Blu-Ray will still be far from mainstream, although the new $150 to $200 players will be helping it out.

Realistically, how inexpensive can you really expect the PS3 to be in 24 months? Sony pushes hard they might be able to get it down to $200. By the end of holiday 2009, 66% (or more) of the people who bought a console in the previous generation will have bought a current generation system, and the consumers that remain will mostly be budget gamers (in other words people who buy $100 systems). Blu-Ray will start to catch on with the mainstream because players will be in the $75 to $100 range.

In other words, as the Playstation 3 reduces its price it will come into the price range of people who have probably already bought into the generation; this means that its growth is dependant on it being bought in addition to another console. Blu-Ray will (likely) not help it that much because stand alone players will drop in price far faster than the PS3 will.

I always figured that continued PS2 sales were due to replacement of old units that broke (it's 8 years old now). Of course, that can't be the situation, because then taking BC out of the PS3 would be really stupid.

DVD is still king and will be untill digital download becomes the norm. Blu-ray is no where near being worth it for sony yet, what is blu-rays market share compared to dvd? small 1% or 2%