The original poster said New from $280 and used from $250.  You just gave two links to USED, 1st gen, horrible load time players for $250. Proving the other guys post. Only crappy, used BD players are available starting at $250.  And there aren't many of these available - there weren't that many sold in the first place. everyone can't get one of these (Even if they wanted to) because there jus tis not that many.

 People will walk into best buy, and the sales guys will steer them to PS3...

i said you could find one he said you couldn't....so i proved my point...you can find a stand alone player

For Blu-ray to succeed as a format, the standalone players NEED to sell more than the PS3, for all the other companies not to get pissed, pick up their balls' and go home.

Nobody cares about BR. Maybe in a couple years it will matter to the average person.

It could possibly boost the sales but should we really ever consider listening to potty Pachter?

I personally imagine that most people who buy Blu-Ray because of this announcement will not even realise that the PS3 is a Blu-Ray player, they will buy stand alone players instead. Of course I could be wrong and the public may be more informed than I imagine.

i dont think it will get a 10% boost since this will mostly help it in NA

Better than a PC with a Blu-Ray player?  Can the PS3 play x264 without having to recode?  What about MKV?  How about all the other container formats?  No?  Guess we have different definitions of "BEST".

^ hahahah ROTFL

normal legend11 i think your way off but that was gold there i have to give you some props

I agree with the analysts on this one. Sony can finally stop paying off movie studios and do something more productive with their money, like buy exclusive game licenses... which will increase the sales of the console by roughly 11.4564535%. :)

Err... basic economics and market forces pretty much guarantees there will be a lift for PS3 - the only real question is how much. I figure 5% or so growing to 15% by summer (with the caveat this assumes that with the war over the studios get behind pushing BR).

As for 360 sales I think they will be hit as the BR/games combination (particularly outside US) is going to shift some purchases from 360 to PS3 - again the question is how many.

It's hard to imagine MS won't drop price soon as the difference between 360 and PS3 is getting pretty thin to consumers (which is why current weekly WW sales are so neck and neck) and outside US the sales of big titles like AC and COD4 are very close.