I was just reading about Samsung's record profits this past quarter and it begs the question, why is one of Sony's main competitors doing so well while Sony struggles in almost every market it's competing in?  Even with videogames they have to sell their system at a loss and with what must be the most expensive internal hardware just to compete.  It begs the question, do these guys even think about some of the boneheaded moves they have been making the past few years?

Here are just a few that simply make no sense:

1.  Adding Netflix to the Playstation 3 for free.  It's great that Sony seems to like to give almost everything away for free or at a loss but what was the point in pretty much handing over their marketshare leadership to Nintendo and losing so much money helping Blu-Ray if they're going to end up helping its competition for free?  Blu-Ray is one of the few bright spots for Sony, even though they're facing anger over Blu-Ray fees, so why in the World are they working against those adopting the format by supporting the competition?

2.  Ensuring that the PSP relaunch was a disaster by following the same idiotic pricing mindset that already proved to be a disaster with the Playstation 3.  This was supposed to be the year that the PSP would regain momentum in North America and Europe and now we're seeing amazing low sales of both the PSP Go and PSP games.   Just looking at Gran Turismo PSP sales must be driving some third-parties that believed in the new launch to just shake their heads and wonder how they were taken yet again by Sony.

3.  Stating that they purposely made the Playstation 3 harder to develop for.  Was anyone at Sony not drinking the Kool-Aid long enough to realize that making it more costly and longer to develop for would also affect their own first-party game development?  Why didn't they just go with more traditional hardware that would have been cheaper and easier to develop for?  It's hard to imagine how many hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars could have been saved in the process.

4.  Giving away online for free.  Sure it made a good bullet point against Microsoft but one has to wonder if they understand how much money they have thrown away because of it.  It's much harder to make people pay for something after they're used to having it for free.  Also what happens years from now when the Playstation 3 reaches a price point where people that only buy used games pick it up and Sony still has to support them?

5.  Allowing both Nintendo and Microsoft to be in the media spotlight over their motion control schemes while Sony pitches theirs to the same crowd that already bought the Playstation 3.  When was the last time you heard anyone but the gaming media talk about Sony's motion controller?  It's supposed to be coming out in six months and it has the buzz of non-alcoholic beer.  Does someone at Sony think that Resident Evil 4 on the Wii was reponsible for that console's success because that it the only game we're even hearing much of anything about.

I could go on about their rapidly growing losses in cell phones or their amazing loss of the portable music market to Apple but since this is a website devoted to videogames it goes a little too off-topic.  For those Sony supports and even other out there, is there a method to Sony's madness, and if not what is going on with them?

thismeintiel said:
Yes, ironman, because I do research instead of blurting out forum rumor I am butthurt. LOL. Well, at least you made me laugh.

I saw no research, just a bunch of butthurt towards people who disagree with you. Glad I made you laugh though. :)

As far as the TD goes. I really don't see that happening. First off it uses 200 layers of 5 GB. So if we get to a point where we can have 200 layers on a Blu-ray that will be 5TB. Not to mention all the movie and electronic companies that have put their hand in Blu-ray won't be switching over to this new one when a TB on Blu-ray will probably be possible whenever that came out.

Now, this just shows how much research you have done. (/sarcasm) Bluray CANNOT physically support any more than it currently does. Thats is the same reason DVDs don't support more than 9gigs. According to your failed logic, DVDs should be able to hold 500G in a matter of years as development continues. 

However, there are 2 other formats HVD (Holographic Versatile Disc) and 5D DVD, that are supposed to hold 4TB and 10TB, respectively. But they won't be ready for another 10 years. So like I said, Blu-ray is probably here to stay for awhile.

Yes, but DVDs still hold a vast majority of the market share. And digital distribution is slowly edging hard copies out of the market. Bluray is like the 8 track of yesteryear. 

Hus said:
Ironman you are one delusion puppy, i hope you get payed for being that. Other wise its just sad.

I am delusional? You sir, are the pot calling the kettle black. 

You can come up with 50 better products. But all the company behind/backing BR will say Fak that, they don't want a new format they want to milk this one. And they sure as hell don't want another format war. Its just not worth it.

Hmm, and you could have said the same thing of DVD, but look what happened. As technology changes, companies will follow it to gain an edge over the competition. it's business 101.

So ironman, are you saying that Blu-ray can only hold 2 layers for 50 GB? Or maybe your speaking of the 4 layers that Hitachi used to get 100 GB or 6 layers to get 200GB? Ritek used 10 layers to get 250GB out of a disc. Pioneer used 16 layers to push 400GB out of one disc, and are currently working on a 1TB disc they hope to get out by 2013. 

YES! The commercial version of bluray will NEVER be over two layers. All the others that you speak of were prototypes and require a different drive to run.

So yea which of those is the layer limit? Technology is always evolving, even current tech. So before you bash someone elses research maybe you should do a little of your own. Then again I suppose you could just go on looking like an ignorant fanboy, having educated people own you.

Yes, but due to the laser config they cannot expand bluray. You need a new drive to use any of those configs. so yeah, you COULD put more than two layers on a bluray disc, but it would be impractical.  And as for the fanboy comment, seriously, why do I look like and "ignorant fanboy" ? I guess using logic and reason qualifies me as such? And as for "having educated people own me" I haven't seen any of that happen in this thread yet...but nice try, you only insult yourself by saying things like that.

Blu-ray an 8-track? So your predicting it to be successful till it is replaced? Cool, we agree then.

8 track was a dismal falure, what are you smoking. 8 tracks were never very popular, they had a short boon, and then were subsequently replaced by tapes.  

As far as digital distribution goes, it will never completely do away with physical media in the next few decades, if ever. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate DLC nor do I think it will eventually die off. I buy it, but only for small games or add-on's. And I know it's here to stay as well. But so is physical media. Look at CD's. Been around from the 80's, and still hasn't died off because of DLC.

No it won't do away with physical media, but then, I never said that it would. It will, however, greatly reduce the sales of physical media after a few years. Already DVDs and Bluray sales are diminishing due to it. Oh, and the CD comment is utter fail, Digital distribution was not around on a large scale until well after 1997

thismeintiel said:
Geez you do no research what so ever. You are the worst form of ignorant. Not only do you not know the facts, you don't even look things up before you shoot your mouth off. Then decide to accept your opinion as fact.

A laughable statement at best, I looked up several of the drives which you quoted before my last post. Suffice to say, I am correct when I say you need a different drive to use the larger discs.  

You do not need a new drive to use the larger layers of Blu-ray. Hitachi used a standard drive on their discs. Pioneer already stated that for their 400GB disc to work, a firmware update is all that would be needed. The only problem is cost of making these types of discs. Which will definitely go down in the coming years.

Yes, but how many people are going to update their firmware? And why in the world, would these companies even bother with larger Bluray discs when they will make more money on a new format. Really, you are clueless aren't you.

8 track a failure. LOL. Had a good laugh at that one. I guess that's why they were popular for 2 decades. From 1965 to the early 80's, when cassette tapes took over. And radio stations still used them for jingles and ads till around the 90's when computer tech took over. What a flop they turned out to be.

It was not popular till the mid sixties, and lost it's temporary boon when tapes came out in the early 70s. BTW, radio stations are not the general population of consumers. the reason radio stations used 8 tracks was because they hold more "information" they have a wider bandwidth, so they sound better.  

Your right that DVD sales have declined. However, Blu-ray is steadily rising. For the first half of 2009 disc sales climbed by 91%, while players rose 25%.

Yes, Bluray sales have climbed, but they are losing ground to digital distribution. They have not flourished as well as they could have.  

Again look things up. You are online. It's easy enough.

I say the same to you, because obviously you don't know how to research, so far, I have done a bit of research and have consequently destroyed your baseless arguments time and time again.