Trying to keep it positive in here, is all.

I am sorry for anyone that can not see the benefits of Blu-ray and Cell by now. It was obvious from E3 2005 that the PS3 tech was going to blow away everything else this gen. The system has much greater bandwidth, and more processing power from both its CPU, and GPU (yes, the RSX is more powerful than the Xenos. Xenos is more flexible, but in raw power RSX is the winner). Now if technical specs don't prove enough to you (you can't understand that 10>5), then you should have seen the benefits in games as early as the second half of 2007. Lair, Heavanly Sword, Ratchet & Clanck, and Uncharted:DF had already put a gap between PS3 and its console competitors by that time thanks to Cell, and Blu-ray.

Now in the present we have seen Metal Gear Solid 4, Infamous, Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, Little Big Planet, Ratchet & Clank 2, and Resistance 2 all put an even further gap between PS3 and its compotition. Everyone of the games listed has been able to push much better image quality, and sound than anything (sans Gears 1 & 2 IQ only) on the compotitions hardware thanks to Blu-ray. MGS4, K2, R2, and U2 all showcase the capabilities of the Cell processor, and effects only made possible thanks to it.

Into the futurethings will only get better. I saw one person say they have finally seen the purpose of both techs, but it has taken all this time. Well here is some good news. We have all of this time again until new hardware will be on the market, and the Blu-ray and Cell advantage will only continue to widen the gap from here on out.

Here are the titles to watch for in 2010 which will continue to prove Cell/Blu-ray.

January - MAG showcases Cell, and one of the other PS3 only techs of this generation, 10/100/1000, yeah PS3 is the only current gen console with gigabit ethernet.

Febuary - Heavy Rain showcases both Cell and Blu-ray beautifully. HR is packed with content. No two charicters will look alike. 100s of people were scanned so that when you go to the mall, or a club, or a train station you will never see the same face twice. The story is able to branch out in many ways with, and Blu-ray gives the devs the space for differant VO's based on you decisions.

March - Final Fantasy XIII, and God of War III. Final Fantasy on PS3 will have about 15 GB more data than the other systems version of the game. PS3 will feature higher quality audio, and Full HD cutsence. As to weather Cell was taken advantage of we will have to wait and see. God of War should be the technicall showcase on PS3 at launch. It looks to take everything we saw from Uncharted 2, and take it up to the next level.

Mid Year - Gran Turismo 5. 1000 cars. 100 Tracks. Nascar. WRC. 16 racers online, and off. 1080p 60fps gameplay. Crash damage. Day/Night racing. Weather Conditions. You want an example of a content that only Blu-ray is Capable of? Do you want to see why the Cell processor has such acclaim? GT5 will be the technicall showcase, and one of the greatest games of all time to boot.

IMHO, Cell and Blu-ray were both harmful for PS3 as it is now. They made the system the second choice for the consumer (for it's price) and the second choice for the developer (for the difficulty to develop and the need to create ports, i.e., the size of the game versions can't be that different).

But the blu-ray drive was beneficial for Sony as a whole, since it solidified their lead in the HD-DVD/Blu-ray format war. The low speed of the drive falls in line with this thought: the PS3's blu-ray player is more a weapon in the format war than a weapon in the gaming front.

I believe that PS3 in itself could be seen like this: Sony risked their financial health in the beginning of PS3's life cycle by introducing the hard-to-deal-and-expensive technologies because, then, they can have an edge in the second half of PS3's life cycle.

IMHO, it all depends at the situation of the market in the next few years:

1. will the developers be able to really use the cell and the blu-ray player?
2. If yes, will Nintendo and Microsoft react accordingly? Will either one or both of them launch a "better" HW, i.e., one that can do things the PS3 can't?

If the first answer is no, PS3 should be a major fail.
If the second answer is no, PS3 is bound to have a bright future: it'll have a fine user base and will do more then the rest. If yes... who knows?

In other words, Sony is trying one specific approach, making M$ and Nintendo to "catch up" with her. Then Sony will have the huge edge of an actual user base. Of course, that's just obvious because they never hid the fact that PS3 will have a 10y life-cycle.

Excellent! You get one of these too then ---> <--- because they are my favorite!

Good so with about 176 votes, a good majority of people are positively minded towards both technologies. The naysayers are nowadays a minority on here.

I think when I do this poll again next year we will see good gains again and the year after that I personally think we will have reached critical mass to come to a well detailed conclusion. By then we will also have a clearer picture regarding side-issues such as console sales and profitability developments.

he said constant streaming speed... and that is a advantage that the ps3 blu-ray drive has that benefits developers because they can stream the game data knowing ahead that it will maintain that speed, so they dont care about read speed variations across the disc... if the game goes well with the data bandwidth that the drive delivers they dont need loading pages or even an hdd install... that was the way i have read his sentence...

How many more PS3s would be in the hands of gamers had this tech not been fitted in the first place and it is for this reason the tech failed proven or otherwise.

@happySquirel.

"Or to put it another way, the best the PS3 has to offer in game has already been seen ..."

^thats what you said, im willing to bet you that ps3 will produce more astounding games than what we have seen on ps3 already.

I guess it depends on your perspective. On the one hand, there isn't anything in game play that really exemplifies the Cell processor was a great choice. Bluray has it's advantages in data size and storage and video player but it's a slow drive. The Bluray is also a great antipiracy device, great for the developers and Sony. Having uncompressed audio is nice but not too many people have that kind of setup to get that full effect. I hope that as developers have more time with Cell, we can really start to see it's advantages(which at this time at it's lifecycle, it should be really in this coming year).

But as a multimedia device and hub the Cell and Bluray is an excellent choice.

I don't have much to say about the Cell; I love its power, undoubtedly a beastly processor, but it has resulted in some poor ports. Just wish more companies took the time to master it; just look at Naughty Dog...Uncharted 2 is considered one of the best games of all time and by many the game with the best graphics of all time-yet they made this game in like 18 months!!! That's insane! Once u get to know the cell, its obviously pretty incredible.

As for Bluray, idk how a gamer can complain about Sony's choice here. Bluray has helped gamers say goodbye to multiple discs for a single game. MGS4 would apparrently have taken like 3-5 different discs if it were on 360; I think I heard that FFXIII will be on one bluray disc for ps3 and like 4 or 5 for 360; Uncharted 2? Probably at least 2-3 discs. And this is just for gaming. I also now have a bluray player for movies bc of my ps3, and let me say the difference in picture between a dvd player and bluray player is like night and day! I truly never want to go back to dvd now that I've seen bluray!