From The New York Times:

The more hardcore gamers like us may not care about anything other than sites like Kotaku, but it's papers like these that get the message across to casuals and non-gamers. 

Buy a sony playstation 3, but dont buy a sonya polystation 3 please.

If Sony didn't pay for that then they have themselves a fanboy working at the NYTimes. The only reason I say that is the "free lunch" line, the guy sounds like he is giving a sales pitch lol.

Still though, this is great PR for Sony~

Sony's lovin' this. I can imagine the smug look on their faces right about now.

How things have changed in just 1 year. At this time last year everyone on this site was bashing the PS3 (I seem to recall a lot of predictions for failure) and there were very few PS3 owners here. Now if only more mods weren't just Nintendo fanboys =)

Sony PS3 way to go. Best deal ever. How much profit you believe Sony is making on HDTV's now?

Enjoying it i'm sure.  Loving it would be difficult given they no doubt paid for it.  Perhaps not directly, but I'm sure you'd find a lot of advertising dollars sunk into the paper's owner.

What a nonsense post.

Ok, they paid for it, but not directly.  They...advertised, and got the positive review posted in return?  Is that your genius theory?  Even thought the stated advantages of PS3 are true?  Are there lots of Sony ads in the NYT, even?  If so, didn't Sony pay for the ads, not the review?  If you are going to suggest otherwise, go ahead and back it up. 

LOL, seriously.   PS3 gets a favorable review, and Sony must have paid off the NYT.  

It couldn't be that the PS3 represents the bargain the reviewer says it does....no, that would make XBox fanboys cry.

So, that means NYT is handling out free money? Where can I line up? 

Yeah, the comment saying Sony paid for it obviously shows a complete lack of understanding of the New York Times. Though there have been mistakes (Jayson Blair's false stories being #1 on that list), the Times is one of the last bastions of integrity in media.

As for the effect, though, it's probably going to be rather small. I may love the Times, but very few people that read the paper are the types to buy video game systems. It's a great place for news and high arts and film reviews, but otherwise it's pretty culturally out of touch and stodgy (it once called Avril Lavigne the next face of punk rock), and is somewhat known for that. I doubt the article made much of a difference to Sony, nor will it make much of a difference to console sales as a whole.