Really? Sales figures seem to say otherwise. And even if it is a better value right now, that'll change once Wii and 360 drop their prices and Natal comes out.

If the PS3 launched for $300 but lacked a hard drive, wifi, and bluray. It would have easily outsold the 360.

@Seinfield. Ifs and Buts wont cut it here. What if 360 launched at 600$? Came with Blu-ray and hard drive as standard? What if 360 didn't go through the RROD stage? PS3 is now an economical option, sure maybe it wasn't and Sony was cocky, but at least they have rectified their mistakes. That's how Humans learn you know. Mistakes.

RROD was a mistake. Launching the PS3 for $600 was a horrible decision. Big difference.

lol yeah people really saw the value and jumped right on the PS3! hahaha

I guess next gen they should have a really stripped down (basic) PS4 and then a premium (better) PS4.

Yeah I know I have no technical knowledge. Lol. I'm just thinking they should make a PS3 that's as basic as possible like Microsoft did with the Arcade 360.

+1

You, sir, have the right of it.

PS4 should have a basic skew and a loaded one, but the basic one should cost more to get it everything the loaded one comes with it should also feature old technology, hardware failures every 6 months or so and charge for access to free content ( i know i know )

That would sell like hotcakes right!!!!

If you dont want to be forced to buy everything off the hop i get it however for those of us that can afford a 1 time fee for a fully loaded/functional system
IT IS A BETTER VALUE
like it or not, BMW are of better build quality and durability then N/A cars but I dont see everyone bitching at BMW for costing more.

This is a very important point.  MS had a way to mitigate the RROD risk... a 3-year warranty.  Sony had no way to mitigate the $600 price tag of the PS3 for someone who didn't want to spend that much.  Had they not dropped the price later on and taken a bath in red ink, the PS3 would not have sold in significant numbers.   There just aren't enough people willing to spend $500-$600 on a console, regardless the fact that it has Blu-Ray, included WiFi, washes the dog, does the dishes etc.  It's a GAME MACHINE, and most people don't want to pay that much regardless how many whiz-bang features it has.  The fact that the price of entry-level Blu-Ray players are dropping through floor (<$100) isn't going to help the Swiss Army Knife argument much, either.

Sony really should have studied the failure of the Lisa computer before building the PS3.

You don't see, nor are you likely ever to see, BMW selling nearly as many cars as Ford or GM.  There's an upside and a downside of building a do-it-all console, so I'm certainly not going to argue with the idea that Sony screwed up not addressing both ends of the console market.  But the key distinction here is that software availability and price are king.  Most consumers don't give a rat's patootie how powerful the Cell is... they just want great games.  With cars you don't have nearly the market for follow-up sales as they don't run software you buy at a store.

Now the REAL winner in the next gen might just be whoever builds a low-end system that is cheap to upgrade... that would be something.