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Playstation 3 Not A Video Game Machine
Gamespot has coverage of a pair of interviews with Ken Kutaragi in which he states that the PS3 isn't really a gaming console. Instead, it will be an all around device that will allow the owner to experience all sorts of different types of new entertainment. From the article: "The PS3 is the product we have been aiming for since the establishment of SCEI...We haven't been creating our [past] PlayStations for the sake of games. Our belief, and the motivation behind running our company, has been to [explore ways of] applying the power of computers to entertainment and enjoyment. We equipped the original PlayStation with a 3D graphics chip, and we equipped the PS2 with the Emotion engine. The PS3 isn't designed to lean towards games. It's not a computer for children. In the sense that our goal has been [to create] a computer that's meant for entertainment, you could say that the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 had existed as steps towards the PlayStation 3."
I must say that I'm getting sick of the path that sega started with the Sega-CD and has been pushed forward (to a new level) by Microsoft and Sony. Honestly, I don't really care much about the Hardware of my system; nor do I care what type of fancy gizmos have been included for non-gaming uses.
Seriously, the most impressive hardware that has been released in the last little while was the Nintendo DS; it certanly isn't that powerful and it doesn't have many "special" features, but it does provide the unique gaming experience that Nintendo claimed that it would.
The truly depressing thing is that, inspite of the dramatic increase in processing power and graphical capabilities, games have really not improved that much in the past 7 years. I guess you can say that this is probably what happens in all types of entertainment "media", popularity acts like a cancer; uncontrolled growth in a segment of the creature (media, genre, etc.) eventually kills the creature.