True enough. The only problem is the value equation. The perceived value for wifi,online play, Blue-ray, a hard disk, High Def visuals and so on, varies depending on want someone wants, expects or can afford. Giving gamers a choice if they want none, only some or all of them, would be benefit both sides, I think. You dont want any of those, you just want to play the new PS3 games? Fine, just get the 250$ one. Or you want all of them? Then the 800$ Premium is for you. Or you want just High Def and upgrade the rest later? Also fine, get the 400$ one and buy everything else later as you see fit. All of a sudden Sony breaks even on Premium and loses less on the rest. (Note: I am not saying, that this would be easy to pull off, but if done right, it could have helped a lot.) To me that seems like an inherent problem with the current model for making consoles. Expensive Ferraris sure dont sell in big numbers, but at least they turn you a big profit, while expensive consoles only increase your possible risk and losses. Maybe nextgen we will see some changes due to that, who knows.

Who should the choice lie with? Developers develop for the lowest common denominator. So if there is an SKU without the high def visuals, blu ray, hard disk, and online play then most devs will program so those that do not have will work. Believe or not it makes the add-on's useless why bother get the higher SKU if the "majority of games will not take advantage of it? This is what I see the illusion of choice is. I want the high def visuals and blu ray and other features. Why should I be gimped on those? Multiplatform devs are already programing for the 360 in mind first so why would I want any exclusive studio or first party to be locked in the same restrictions? I want to give developers the choice. Here are these features you have at your disposal.... use what you feel is needed to get your game across. Who knows... what if some of these devs really have plans on making a 50 gig game, or wants to use the HD capabilities? So the way I see it the choices are just right where they need to be. The devs have a choice of which systems and platforms to dev on and the consumers have a choice of what system to buy. Complaining about features offered on one systems is more harmful than helpful so IMHO If people do not like the features of the PS3 then chose another system. If you don't like the online component of the Wii either wait or buy a 360. It is really that simple.

As for the high def: If the specs map well if would just a matter of the game changing resolution, texture details, etc. automatically - imagine PC games, only that they come preconfigured. As for Blue-ray: For example 50% of the games could fit on DVD or they could do an alternative version with multiple disks. Hard disk: Could improve your load times, but with a nice drive it would not be mandatory. And it goes on and on. All PC games have managed to do that, so why should it not be possible on a console? Just a what if, but of course, as it is now, its simpler, yes, but not necessarily better. Just think of online: it does not even make sense for all games (VF 5), some players dont even want/need it, it is not done for all games because of budget, etc. As I said, its a question of value. If you really want all features, then yes you will shell out whatever $ it takes, but if you can live with half of them, it suddenly seems a little bit wasted, especially if you are on a tight budget. So the choice should lie both with developers and customers. The result would be that everyone feels better, because you only pay for what you really want to and the total install base can grow at a much faster rate, because of a lower price entry point.

1. Any Sony Style has one in store, also online. Online carried still at a lot of retailers. 2. God of War, God of War 2, Resistance Fall of Man, Twisted Metal, Socom I and II, The Getaway, Syphon Filter, Jak and Dexter, Ratchet and Clank, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Gran Turismo. Some of these they published, but were still first party games as they were exclusive. Specifically Gran Turismo, which was the best selling game last gen even selling more copies world wide than any of the GTA games did (individually). 3. I said, the 360 and PS3 combined were outselling the Wii now as of the PS3 launch in Europe. And will be on a monthly basis. It has nothing to do with the PS2. Did I mention anything about the PS2? No. And I didn't say the PS3 alone would do it either.

It is not so easy as you think. PCs have some advantages that play a big role in this: All PCs are more or less universal. Their processors and even their basic architectures are structured in a way to make programing rather easy. Everything goes through standard libraries to hide the plattform from, the software. The more complicated the platform, the higher your costs, because the costs of a plattform always depend on ther number fo bugs you have to find and fix. In this case both plattforms have disadvantages, which result inh higher costs. Especially the SPUs of the cell are very selective. If you want to make a generique plattform you have to limit their power considerably. While the Xbox isn't very friendly either its basic architecture is much simpler and easier to hide. This raises the reuseability of code and makes the development cheaper. So if you want more power and abilities you have to be ready to pay a higher price. And on these platforms the costs raise considerably. In fact if you would ask this way, most developers would probably ask: "Why shouldn't we write for PCs and drop these consoles with their complicated hardware?". It would probavly be a better and cheaper approach. Every additional feature raises the costs considerably, because you have to test everything at least two times (one with the feature on, the other with the feature turned off). Do you really think that the customers would be ready to pay the higher price?

Well that kind of argument already works vs the PS3 in favor of the XBox 360 which should be very close to PC architecture. And those incarnations of PS3's would of course have the same architecture, so even it is not universal it is the same. Much like the Wii is basically a upgraded GC you could think of the Standard Def Unit as a downgraded PS3. Much of the conversion of the games could probably be automated and after a little finetuning you would be ready to sell your games to this additional low-end PS3 userbase, too. They sure could produce those more cost efficiently, too. For example, I dont know how high their yieldrates are, but normally they might have to throw some of their Cells and GPUs away, because they are not good enough, though they might do just fine for the downgraded units, etc. So the development costs would increase a little, but the potential sales also. Just think of it as a really low-cost port and as the the trend for multiplatforming these days implies, the underlying engines have become be more easily adjustable, too, so it should not be that much of a problem.

Listen here y'all, Hastings Speaks the truth. It is written in ever insomniac's employee contract and NDA that they must speak the truth. Your just mad cause you cant afford a ferrar...... a PS3, and you all know you want one. YOU GUYS ARE A BUNCH OF SONY HATERS DRINKING HATERADE!!!!!!

Get Lost Troll

Well, sorry but there are reasosn behind ther basdic design of a PC. Behind the design of the Cell were several special cases where the archchuitecture has big advantages, but in fact I wouldn't even describe their basdic cores as very good., It's pipeline is a bit to deep. The Xbox 360 and the PS-3 are better suited for streaming purposes than for true multi purpose behaviour.

2. Aside from Gran Turismo, which has sold over 5 million last generation? None of them. Look at the Dec, Jan, and Feb US top 50 games charts, Dec - 3 Sony (2,717k)/13 Nintendo (7,761k), Jan - 2 Sony (782k)/14 Nintendo (2,724k), Feb - 4 Sony (627k)/16 Nintendo (2,526k). I would agree Sony games are mediocre at best but that is obviously opinion, saying they don't sell terribly well is fact especially given Sony's 100 million unit system. 3. In the NA/JP Jan and Feb the Wii outsold the PS3/360 (1,618k vs 1,294k). It won't in March since the PS3 just sold more in Europe in 3 days than it has in the entire rest of the world over the last 3 months. If Euro PS3 sales track the way they have everywhere else and if Nintendo increases Wii supply the Wii will continue outselling the HD systems. If you're arguing that the HD systems will beat the SD systems you should include the PS2 since like the Wii it's also beating the HD systems. Unless you limited your argument to only next-gen systems but that sort of limits the impact of the point also.