exactly.  Very well put.  You said everything there that i was trying to take paragraphs to explain

^I wouldnt mind that now.
eg: The company makes extremely different versions of their console, but every version can play the same games. One could be cheap with motion controls, one could play HD movies, have a bigger HDD and a web browser and be more expensive. I no this is a possibility, but I just cant see it happening XD

true and like i said in a post a while back we are still pretty far away from something like that.  At the absolute soonest i wouldn't expect it till after the next-gen (PS4, XB 720, Wii 2) but it would certainly be a healthier and more profitable form for almost everyone involved.  Especially the software developers.

Sorry for the late response, but thanks for the info!

I don't think Bluray will be a failure. Once players reach the mass market price of around 150$-200$ im sure sales will take off. I also think bluray movies themselves need to drop in price to the same as dvd and HDTVs need to drop in price as well, which they will do. Just because a format doesn't take off right away doesnt mean its a failure. Look at CDs. It took quite a few years for them to take off but eventually when the price reach that mass market friendly level sales took off. If Bluray still isnt a success 3 years from now, id be worried, but until then dont right it off as a failure while its still at a premium.

A single console would benefit the 3rd party developers, that's for sure, but other than that it will be bad for the industry.

A) Extra money for R&D? Why would companies do that? If there's a single console, it has single specifications, otherwise it doesn't make sense cause it would become a PC, where you'd have to upgrade your console to play certain games. This is exactly why people prefer consoles over PC gaming.

You forget one important thing: once there's a single console world, there's no incentive whatsoever to improve the hardware every 5-6 years, like now is the case. We wouldn't have had an innovation like motion controls on Wii or online like 360. It sounds perfect for costumers on the first sight, but in the end it's not. Competition is what drives any business, but the competition among console manufacturers has made delopments much faster.

I'm very much against a single gaming platform and would hate for Sony to stop in the videogame business.

Well, Sony denied it, so...

http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2009/01/05/sony-denies-reports-regarding-major-division-shut-downs/

Let's hope it plays out the way they say.

Oh hey, its something that was already discussed in this thread.

And look at it this way; if they don't restructure radically then they're screwed for certain.

And exactly this is their problem. The other article was stating things from the investors point of view. They are in fact rallying support against parts of the Sony Management. Sony will have to react or they will get huge bills from their investors.

Although I doubt that they will sell complete parts. At the moment you wouldn't get real money for them. But Sony will have to cut costs and earn profit in the short term badly. This will probably lead to several important steps for their gaming department:

A low cost initiative for the PS-3. The console has no real chance to earn back its huge investment costs, especially the cell developmant. Its costs were parked all over the place.

At the moment it is in a good situation to earn at least a part of its money back. They are in no postion to compete with the Arcade Xbox 360 now or in the long run. So it is a more prudent step to try to earn some money back and invest it in a PS-4 project. The PS-3 might sell sufficiently for 2-3 years and then you should better have an alternative. Otherwise the Wii 2 and Xbox 720 will crush you between their previous versions and their new plattforms.

On the software side the situation is quite clear. Lots of their staff will want to go into the multi plattform development. A bigger market and rather minute additional costs. All the expensive exclussive projects have trouble to even meet the break even point. Only exclussive titles in very advanced stages will stay exclussive.

From a pure software development standpoint this is the best and easiest way to earn profit on HD plattforms. Especially if Microsoft succeds in attracting casual gamers with HD interests. Do you really believe they will wait till your console drops to their price point or will they take the 200$ alternative, even if they get slightly less attractive games but they can play them now, not in one or two years.