Is this a different dimension?

Nothing. It's not as if those 17 million people will actually be able to get their heads.

In any case, I don't think Sony is deliberately trying to hinder the PS3 and Blu-Ray. They're making mistake after mistake, but the mistakes are honest ones (if preventable).

The biggest mistake Sony has made with Blu-Ray was bringing it out too soon. This is not just about people still being content with DVD, though that certainly plays a role: the main problem is that Blu-Ray discs were, and still are, too expensive to produce. Part of the reason DVD won was that the discs were cheap enough to be collectible: VHS and Laserdisc were not, except for a small segment of the population. Blu-Ray, by contrast, tried to up the price point back to more VHS-like levels, and I believe this is one of the major reasons it hasn't caught on. Most people just can't collect Blu-Ray discs the way they could DVDs, and so they won't be able to get as much out of a Blu-Ray system. They go for the format that gives them more, plain and simple.

You'll note that I haven't mentioned the price of Blu-Ray players here. Certainly these are still expensive, but so were DVD players at the beginning. They were both hurt to some degree by this -a relatively high barrier to entry- but because they shared this problem, it doesn't explain why their outcomes have been so different. I offer a difference which can explain that: not the players, but the discs.

Note also, by the way, that HD-DVD shared this same problem: the discs were roughly the same price. It shared the same problem, and so it, too, didn't stand a chance against DVD. This means that Sony did not need to bring out Blu-Ray when it did: DVD wasn't going anywhere. Perhaps they didn't see this: like I said, I believe their mistakes were honest ones. But it is something they could have seen, even if they did not see it.

The major mistake with the PS3, then, was tying it to Blu-Ray: a format that was and is still too far ahead of its time to be viable right now. The end result, however, turned out a little different. Because Sony controlled the format, it didn't have to pay the kinds of licensing costs that Nintendo and Microsoft do, negating the price difference between PS3 and 360 games. But the technology behind the console was just so expensive to produce that Sony couldn't offer the console itself at a price people were willing to pay: $599 US for a friggin game console. The barrier to entry was simply so high that even the fact that there was no price disadvantage on games couldn't save it: people were just not willing to pay that much for what is, fundamentally, a toy. And they couldn't cut the price either, at least not at first, because even the $599 price tag inflicted such crippling losses that it was almost predatory to be offering it for a price that low.

This problem -production expenses- still plagues the PS3 to this day. Sony has somehow managed to cut the price a few times over the past two years, yet people wonder why they don't go any lower: it's because they can't go any lower. They still take major losses on every PS3 sold at a time when Microsoft is just about breaking even, and Nintendo of course has been profiting since day one.

Sony has painted itself into a corner here. They must go lower in order for people to be willing to buy the system, but they can't afford to go lower because the losses would simply be too large. They should have seen this in the beginning, and the proper response would have been to scale back the system's technology until it could be sold at a price people were willing to pay for it. But Sony decided to take a major risk, and that's OK: business is about taking risks. But sometimes the risk doesn't go the way you hoped it would, and Sony has gotten badly burned by that, and I'm not sure I see a way out for them. The traditional methods simply aren't working: blockbuster games don't moving consoles post-release the way they used to, price cuts are not an option given the expenses involved in making the system, Sony can't afford to moneyhat games the way Microsoft does, and the Playstation brand -once the strongest in the industry- has taken some severe beatings.

What else is left? If we say the PS3 is doomed, it is only because we see no way for Sony to get out of this mess. The industry has changed, and now that this generation has begun in earnest it is too late for Sony to change with it. They will have to wait until the next gen, unless they try to kickstart it themselves: another massive risk. This gen is over, and Sony has lost badly.

I feel like we've gone back in time.

Does anyone else get the eeriest form of Deja Vu from like eighteen months ago?

@ everybody

Look I may well be way off the mark on this one but sometimes you just get a gut feeling about something.

Sony have invested big time in the PS3 and I commend them for that.
I also happen to think it is a good console, no better than the 360 mind you gaming wise.

But even the most diehard fan would have to admit they have had a lot of bad luck with it.

Even the LBP launch got hindered over some religion thing.

The only other scenario I can predict is them going hell bent for leather with price cuts and Sony themselves have consistently stated that is not going to happen.

wow so much hate for sony right now.

i dont think sony is going to cancel the ps3, but i think they should stop working on the ps2 and psp and focus only on the ps3.

I would agree with your points millenium I tend to say less as I type badly :)

Both Nintendo and Sony took major risks..it worked (and it´s working) extremely well for Nintendo...and bad for Sony, on the gaming side of things.

Sony took the biggest risk... They went head-to-head against Microsoft in a money-dependent battle. That's a recipe for disaster for most companies, even more so when you're incurring losses right from launch.

I really can't imagine what Sony will do with an eventual PS4. They have to turn the whole strategy around.

No way will Sony release a PS4 anytime soon. That would be rediculous anyway. It would be giving the middle finger to people who have loyally supported the PS3, and would leave PS2 owners cold and would drive more of them to the 360.

Sony has made mistakes, and the PS3 is taking hits, but I wouldn't go as far to say things are bleak for the system. Sony has to weather the storm, and next year at this time at $300 with a recovering economy they'll probably do a bit better than the $400 system is doing in a recession right now.

They need to market their system better though; they need a campaign to reinvigorate the image of the system in a way that it can appeal to more than just the tech geeks and hardcore Sony fans. That won't be easy, but if Sony cuts down on the screw ups they can really get out of this quite well. The biggest thing beyond their control is how the market responds to blu-ray. That's still a very open question.

People think Sony will just drop the PS3 next year? Wow, I have never heard something so dumb in my entire life.

Do people actually think customers will see Sony drop a product after less than 3 years in production and just hop onto a PS4?

Come on people, get real.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, I just being honest here.