Rave reviews for exclusive games don't affect console sales.  GameCube has several of the highest rated video games of all time, and it was smoked by the uber-casual PS2.

Nintendo learned from their mistakes and Sony's successes.  Every success Sony had somehow made them dumber.

And those prices aren't going to happen.  Sony can't afford to lose more money faster than they are now.

When games like Madden make 80% of their sales on Wii you can come back and tell us HD consoles are dead......

The PS1 wasn't necessaraly competing with anyother viable competitors when it launched though, just the Sega Saturn which was $100 more expensive and the Atari Jaguar which was a joke of a competitor, 3D gaming at that time was considered far more lucrative than the proven mainstays of 2D gaming still on the market at that time. By the time the N64 launched two years later, the PS1 had already established a fairly comprable following and a year later in 1997, had cemented itself as the industry leader.

Remember, when the PS1 launched, the 3D gaming market was a place of uncertainty and was a market that had seen more industry new commers (Bandai, Fujutsu, Apple, 3DO and the return of Atari, Casio, Panasonic) than any generation since the early second generation. The PS1 was not only more affordable than the disc format competition, but the one console that was cheaper than it (N64) featured dated and expensive cartridges. The ridiculously cheap game disc format combined with brand new industry changing game titles was everything a fledgling console needed to get a foothold in the market.

However, the PS3 is not a fledgling console, its the successor to the most successful home console of all video game history, its slow start is not due to a lacking benefit of the doubt but rather one of the sharpest falls from grace of any console dynasty to date. It's the most expensive console on the market. Rather than featuring playability of pre-existing popular and utilitarian formats such as CD and DVD as its predicessors did, the PS3 tried to feature a new and unproven propriotary luxury format, Blu-Ray, which attributed to its expense at launch. And al the exclusives the PS3 is trying to rely on are either timid first party games or sequels to aging franchises long since past their prime. The PS1 built a dynasty with games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy (as a mass appeal franchise) and Metal Gear Solid... The PS3 now is simply trying to subside on the sequels of these franchises that have become familar and predictable, no more industry suprises, no more game genre innovation, no more fresh faces.