You're wrong there. Microsoft didn't shoot themselves in the foot by not mandatorily including HD DVD in their console. Offering it as a cheap (compared to stand-alone players) addon actually was the smartest thing they could have done.

If they had wanted to include it, they couldn't have released the 360 in winter 2005 in the first place. Also, do you think the 360 would have sold 11 million by now had it costed $600 instead of $400? Instead, Sony appear to have shot themselves in the foot by including BR into the PS3 (launch delay, high price). Imagine a PS3 launch in spring 2006 at $400 (which would have been possible without BR) - would Sony be in the same position they are now then? The Wii wasn't even released at that time.

Now the letdown on the console battlefield would be alright if the HD software media format war had gone well instead - since it was Sony's strategy to gain an early victory there by exploiting their superior position in the console war. But from my point of view it looks like Sony is going to lose the format war as well. Apart from the Blu-ray fanboys at Fox and Sony themselves I consider it very much possible for the remaining big studios to become either HD DVD exclusive or least format neutral.

VHS was/is a product of JVC, not Toshiba.

Well ,after the resident anti-Sony fanboys the PS3 and BR are the doom of Sony so if Sony was without them it would be way better isnt it dear haters ?

On a side note with this whole "Format War" discussion is HD-VMD ( http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136977-c,hometheatersystems/article.html ) which is based on the same Red-Laser technology that is found in the DVD players that Nintendo and Microsoft use ...

I find it reasonably difficult to believe that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo would be unaware that they could have 30GB per side on a disc format which would not cause the price of the console to skyrocket which begs the question why did Microsoft/Nintendo choose the small storage space and why did Sony choose the expensive format?

If Blu-ray, PS3 and PSP all bombed, I'm not sure what would happen. I don't think the company will go out of business, but it may have to shed some weight. The gaming division might be cut back, but I think there would at least be an attempt at a "Playstation 4". The name might be changed, but Playstation and PS2 were big money-makers for Sony most of the time, I think they'd try once more.

I'm not sure about PSP...Sony might attempt a PSP2, but they'd better have a new strategy for it.

Actually, odds are PSP2 and PS4 are already both in development. I hope Sony is evaluating what needs to be changed for them to perform better than the current systems.

Speaking of Blu-ray and bombing, I don't think it will fail because of HDDVD - if it fails at all, I think it will fail because of consumer apathy. I'm not convinced the public feels the need for high-def movies yet. If they do, I think Blu-ray has a decent chance of winning, at least it seems to be in the lead so far.

Edit - HappySquirrel's comments: I don't know why Microsoft didn't go with that technology, but in the other two cases, I think there are "good" reasons. I don't think Nintendo really needs the extra space that badly since there's no need for HD visuals on the Wii.  As for Sony, the company obviously wanted PS3 to be a trojan horse for Blu-ray...and it's kind of working, thanks to PS3, there are far more Blu-ray players out there than HD-DVD players...but it has possibly come at the cost of Playstation sales.

IF that happened, and it's a awful big IF at that. Sony would survive. They are not all about gaming and blu-ray. They have a popular consumer electronics division and TV line up that is among the best out there. Sony would be more then fine, but yea, it's not going to happen and none of those will "die".

For the sake of argument, Sony has been in a lot of financial trouble lately. I don't see the company going under that easily, but Howard Stringer's very reason for existing at Sony is to fix all their problems, and the recent problems for the Playstation brand aren't helping.

Well it was a nice IF discussion anyways , less trolls than I expected :P

im not lying at all Sony TV's are really bad when ever we look at TV;s say 26" the sonys ones are blury and pixelated panasonic and samsung are so sharp and clear

 and with the other things its true Nokia is outselling Sony ericson Ownbrand walkmans are put selling sony walkmans and there DVD players are still like 80 quid here 160$ out cheapest DVD player is 15quid 30$ big difference in price but not in quality

A great troll thread inspiring some wonderful and quality posts from Fishyjoe and Alko as always...

I can't really complain though because I'm a fanboy apparently.