They actually can deny my assumptions. It's legit thinking. But they can't deny the fact that you have to buy a 200$ HD-DVD drive to play HD-DVD discs. I don't mind a good discussion, as long as it's not just "WII RULE" (as in "We rule") or "PS3 SUX!" And I'd have to disagree with you about the flavor of this forum. After being in countless System wars threads, I just think that this site is the real deal. This is where facts are really being discussed, and opinions=crap.

if i were sony, i would have fired my marketing and communication directors who gave so much bad publicity to the brand (or because they could not lock up kateragi when he was about to say something ridiculous). if i were microsoft, i would have ditched vista and embrace the open formats.... but i digress if I were nintendo, i would have made the online experience ready with demos and new games to DL thru VC channels and indeed, as i just read above, have Mii games or Mii minigames (thru VC) available on a regular monthly basis for people to get attached to their Miis.

Well if i where nintendo i'd of at least put some effort into the vc games that suited online play and tested the waters of their servers and infrastructure with these games before releasing new games that are online ready (and these games should be out by now, or coming close to release) Also wii sportsII should be out by now............

At least MS don't force you to pay 600$ to play games... games are not on HD-DVD. And still the Blu-Ray format will benefit from the PS3 because they count Blu-ray players sales and they include the PS3. What if i just wanna play games on PS3? They force me to help them win the format-war!

A product is never forced on consumers. You have the wrong frame of thinking when you speak like that. It is simple... you do not want br... do not buy the PS3. I love blu ray films but I am still excited to see what devs are going to do with the space on a BR disc.

Honestly, I think that everyone who currently owns a PS3 would probably say that Blu-Ray is essential to the PS3, but that is because they do not see a problem paying $600 on a system and think Blu-Ray is a great bonus. Personally, I only ever owned a Playstation product because of the third party exclusive titles that were on the Playstation/PS2 because of its massive sales lead; I think that this is typical of much of the Playstation's userbase because the PS2/Playstations million selling games are (about) 80% third party titles. "Why does this matter?" you're probably asking, the reason is because I know I am at the higher end of the spectrum by being willing to pay $300 (maybe $400) for a videogame system. At $600 the PS3 is going to limp along and lose most of its exclusives. Even if it sees a $100 price drop every year it will be in 2009 or 2010 when most people are willing to spend that kind of money on a videogame system, at this point it will be so far behind in sales that third party developers may have abandoned the system. Now, people will say that the extra capacity is needed and I will say that most of the extra capacity is being used for loading time optimization because of how slow the format is. The most common approach is that (because of how slow random access is on optical discs) you take a level and all of the models and textures that are used in that level and you zip them into a single file; now this will take up extra space because you're likely to be using a lot of the same models and textures in every level, so a lot of your data is replicated 20 or 30 times. Now, if you're running into a limit on storage capacity you can load multiple files for every level and reorganize data; if you have the space you will probably not bother because it takes time and there are benefits to having a larger disc image (piracy prevention) ...

Well, i disagree with you, but not because i think that HD-DVD is superior to BR now, but i think it will take some years until we can see which format will become standard, and it can still be neither BR nor HD-DVD. One exemple i can give you is Audio CDs compared to MP3 Players, the quality is definitely better in audio cds, but MP3 has made them look obsolete, since its easier to use, has better funcionalities, and isn't more expensive. Another one is just looking at the portable market, every gameboy or the nintendo DS had a most powerful tecnological opponent, and the psp is still in the market, but every one the tried to beat any gameboy just got obliterated, because the gameboy had qualities that mattered much more to the overall consumer, the same qualities i mentioned before, its easier to use, since the gameboys are really strong and children could play and not break them, and the system made better use of batteries as well, and i could think about more stuff, but i think this is enough. So what i'm trying to say is that i think dvds can hold the martk probably until the end of this generation of consoles, if hd-dvd, br or another different format are much cheaper and offer real advantagens 5 years in the future, then it's probable that we have a new mainstream format. But i don't think that the new format will be chosen because it can carry 15, 20 or even 40gb more when compared to a normal dvd, people actually can only see a difference if they have high def tv and sound equipment, which still aren't mainstream. If any format will emerge victorius it will be because it makes people's life easier. And if I may continue, i think that something along the lines of that appel tv thing has the most chance of winning, last year there were much much more people watching videos on youtube than on hd-dvd or br players, and this year i think this trend will continue, since not having fisical package of every movie/series/football match actually makes things easier, i believe that some sort of tv with internet, with streamable content and a hard drive will be the future, but well that is just my bet =)

No i insist that they force me. Cause i don't want BD to win... but i wanna play PS3 games. So they tell me "Wanna play Ratchet & Clank? Help BD win and you'll play it" So by buying a PS3 just for playing games Sony includes that as a BD Player. If i wanna see a BD Film thanks i will buy a individual BD player.

Exactly!

If I was: Kutriagi: I would of reduced the number of SPEs the Cell had for the PS3 to around 4, killed the RSE, and cut a few other corners. I would of included HDMI/mem cards standard, and tried to just release 1 price point at $400 or $350 USD (which woulda forced MS into a price war). I would of kept the Blu-Ray on it, despite the cost. The Blu-Ray only costs around $125 - not a massive increase for what it gives (whereas the Cell MOBO is $300+). Also, I would of launched the PS3 globally around Feb/March 2007 instead, therefore having more and better games at launch. Gates: Keep the 360 as it was design-wise. Its a fantastic system. However, I'd up the game size limit, and start focusing more on getting BC as a better system. I'd streamline the hard drives to be a standard USB format like the Sony system(s), and allow for much larger HDs. Because of this, I would get old(er) Xbox games on XBLM for 1200-1800 points for the big sellers like Ghost Recon, Forza, Halo 1/2 and alot of other great games, and allow any/every dev port their old PS1,PS2 and Xbox games onto XBLM and make it truely massive download support. By now, I would institute a $75 price drop for both core/prem, and institute another $50 price drop by September before Halo/GTAIV come out. Miyamoto: I would quickly be researching components for a new Wii2 to launch around 2010. I would focus RIGHT NOW on getting AS MANY factories as I could to produce more Wiis and DSes, as well as the ability to manufacture more DS cartridges. I would funnel more money into 1st party development, and try to get more 3rd party and indie devs to think about the VC as a format to make games on. Also, I'd take Wii Sports out of the free Wii US package, sell it for $40, and drop the price to $200USD in a few months. Other than that, roll in the cash.