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Sony Aims Higher Than The Gaming Market
Next Generation tries to take a look at what Sony is up to with the PS3, without going off on a rumour-filled tangent. Their thought? Sony is after something much bigger than the gaming market. From the article: "The big play is for the high definition DVD market, and in this context, an early launch, with small hardware numbers and threadbare games software support might just be a good move. This play potentially represents Sony's most important move in its entire history. Imagine; a royalty for Sony on every single DVD sold between 2006 and 2012 or thereabouts. No wonder Bill Gates hates Blu-ray."
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It's not that the electronics companies are going to be forced to stop producing DVDs, it's that "Big Content" wants them to stop producing DVDs. The electronics companies will happily go along for the ride, knowing that if the right amount of content is there, customers may very well follow, and they will enjoy a success similar to the one they had when people were switching from VHS to DVD (and like the RIAA had during the switch from audio cassette to CD).
The thing everyone has to worry about is market acceptance. Like someone mentioned earlier, the general public cares only about stuff working, not about the best quality possible (unless they have HDTVs, which is probably a sign that they're not in the general public anymore). HDTV penetration is very low in the US, which is seen as the most important market for consumer electronics (this is debatable, but that's how companies seem to act sometimes), to the point where almost ten years after introduction the market is still well below 10% HD.
As things progress, and prices continue to fall to the point where plasma and LCD screens are as expensive as normal CRT TVs are now, HD will have higher market penetration, but people may not feel the need to update from DVDs. I've seen a DVD on an HD set, and there isn't enough distortion to warrant buying all new movies & players.
That last part was the gist of what I'm trying to say.
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I just wanted to let you all know that because Sony's "music" "CDs" installed DRM onto unsuspecting Windows boxen, we are all boycotting Sony. No division of Sony will receive any of our money, least of all their so-called "entertainment" division which puts out such "original" games for the "PlayStation 3" as "Final Fantasy XVII" and "Gran Turismo 7 Mil-spec Super Alpha Plus."
I have an XBox, two PS2s and a game cube connected to my home LAN. Last round definately went to the PS2, with the XBox having superior technology (and Live was a great idea) but not as many games that I care about and the Nintendo having the best family/party games. (Checking my games, I have 34 PS2, 15 XBox and 12 Cube games on the shelf. I know I have traded in many more PS2 games than either of the others...)
This round I can't find interest in *any* of the new machines. The 360 is lacking a killer app: I'm not into the FPS on consoles (say hello to my mouse and keyboard noobs) and the rest of the offerings are pretty much nothing to write home about. The PS3 has backwards compatibility, which makes it more likely (screw you Microsoft for your choices of emulated games... my library of XBox games hates you) and the Revolution at least is *trying* to do something interesting while keeping costs down *and* including backward compatibility. I will probably pick up the Revolution when it comes out, wait for the PS3 to develop a library and flip Microsoft the bird since I will have to hang onto the massive box to finish up the games I have in the queue anyway.
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Well that's exactly what happened in Japan when the PS2 came out. It was the cheapest DVD player on the market, and people bought them in droves for that very reason. They'd like nothing more than to repeat that success, this time in a bigger video markeet (the US). The big wild card is whether consumers will actually care enough about Blu-ray for this angle to make a difference.