While that might be better from (most) gamers' perspective, it would also defeat the purpose of Sony entering gaming in the first place. Remember, according to Sony itself, the PlayStation brand was ultimately aimed at winning over the home's entire media, not just its gaming needs. There's a reason Krazy Ken said Microsoft was the enemy, and why Sony's referred to the PS3 as a "PC" this gen.

People, the PS1 had the CD player and the PS2 had the DVD player, and they are to this day the best selling consoles ever, the PS3 problem was not including a multimedia center, the problem was that CD was cheap to make when PS1 launched, DVD was cheap to make when PS2 launched, but Blu-Ray was a brand-new technology (and because of that, expensive) when the PS3 launched, the console was designed to fight a war with Toshiba and promote the new HD-format, this was different than before and because of that the games division suffered, next console won't do that again, but it will sure be a multimedia device (I'm guessing Blu-Ray, different video formats and digital streaming with a more powerful Cell, more RAM and a better Video Card, with that the price should start on $300)...

@OP: I partially disagree, I think you are right only about development, every new extra feature, improvement, performance gain, etc, should be dedicated to PS4' gaming side, but the extra features already present in PS3 have their development already paid and in a few years the extra HW needed will be dirt cheap, basic BD drives themselves will cost as DVD drives, so taking them away wouldn't be wise.
You are right too about Sony having to not use PS4 to launch something not strictly related to games, like it did with PS3 and BD, but this has nothing to do keeping BD in the next console, now that it's launched and it costed Sony so much and it's going to be not expensive anymore in a few year.

personally I'd rather pay for a device I want i.e. a game machine, and not stuff I do not, all that does is raise the price and keep more users away.

@ original post

Sony had no choice to include blu-ray and other stuffs on the PS3 because their priority was to win the video format war to avoid another betamax history. Hence, the trojan worked for Sony and they won the more important format war in their eyes and lost the videogame format war, which they used to take for granted thanks to ps1 and ps2's immense success.

Thankfully for Sony, PS4 won't be another trojan for a format war because next generation would be use of current bluray format and/or digital download.

@ sparkit34

PS3 does have motion, though it's half-assed because it was added at the last minute to counter/copy the Wii.

-1 consumer from the Playstation brand if Sony was to pull that crap. When it comes to paying money for something I want the most I can get out of it. I don't care if the PS3 came out at $149, if it only plays games forget it.

As a working adult I do not always have time to play games, and I do not want to buy a product that is just going to sit on my entertainmant shelf. That is why I have always been a Playstation supporter. Playstations have always been about added functionality, and convinence. I will never buy a standalone movie player ever again. I will never buy a standalone music player ever again. Standalone products rarly perform better than multimedia devices now. I know in the past it used to mean the product could do a lot of stuff ok, but nothing special, but that is no longer the case.





To all the people saying Sony needs to focus on games, open your &(*%&*%^ eyes. Tell me which console has a better major production line-up coming to it in the next 12 months. Sure other companies may end up selling more crapy games, or more good small fun experiances, but not one console has the amount of high quality peices of software PS3 has lined up. Don't give me the BS about how if Sony focused on games you would be happier, because that is a rediculous. WTF is Sony going to do to focus even deeper on games? The whole &()&%@@ SCEI division is compleltly focused on bring a more diverse line-up of games, at better quality, across more genres. They are doing tons of work to help 3rd party devs take more and more advantage of the playstation products. Instead of saying how Sony needs to focus on games, tell us how they go about doing so.

For the time being, go complain to Sony Pictures. They are the ones that are giving resorces to make movie deals possible on the PS3. Without them Blu-ray would have lost. Without SPE we would not have a video store on PSN. Other than those things I do not see what the issue is with the extra features on PS3. Music playback, its *^*^%$ open source, and all the tech to do it is drag and drop. The same goes for picture viewing, video playback, internet browing, and everything else the PS3 does besides gaming. All the extra crap you people are complaining about it crap the system already has to do for game development. AVI, MP3, MP4, VC-1, Divx. All of those are part of game development. For the PS3 to have the capability to do that in game, but not outside of games would be straight screwing the consumer. Even the beloved Wii has the ability to play music, view pics, play videos, and browse the web.

I'll stop there, but this is still a rediculous topic. Why people want less capable devices is beyond my logic.

Multi-media capabilities are why I own a PC, I don't buy consoles to look at pictures and watch movies on them. I strongly agree that Sony should ditch all of the second rate multi-media crap and focus on making the PS4 an affordable gaming system.

The PS3 is first and foremost a games machine but I also use it for other reasons as well. Removing all the added features such as the video service just so it can be pure games would make no sense at this stage. I do agree though that their next console should not be called "Playstation 4". I wouldn't mind if they kept the word "Playstation" but they need to remove the numbering.

I want a machine like the ps3 but even better.. how it's marketed ? well they just gotta do it well.. new play b3yond ads !

I agree. Next gen all it should do is play games, and play blu ray. Nothing else. And by then Blu ray will be cheaper.