It would be a surprising move and I also dont think it will happen, but its not beyond comprehension that Sony would do something like this (or MS for that matter).

The Nintendo Wii isn't a concern for Sony. Sonys only competition is Microsoft. Playstation 3 will sell and it will sell well. Maybe Sony won't dominate this time like last time but is it doomed Hell no.

I wouldnt go as far as to say RIP, BUT I do think that it will not be the powerhouse that the PS2 was. People keep comparing them, but Sony was in a much better position with the PS2. Here are the differences that I see...

1. Long lead time over Xbox (which the 360 now has) and was released with virtually no competition
2. GAMES - the 360 now has alot of the same games that PS3 will have. PS2 was more exclusive on alot of games. (GTA3 anyone??)
3. Xbox was brand new at the time of its release
4. It was affordable at $299
5. It had a DVD player (which at the time, was a huge move since DVD was growing very fast...BD is not at the same level that DVD was when PS2 was released AND it requires an HDTV unlike DVD did)

I dont know how you know this, but if true then Sony is extremely stupid.

Just one aspect of competition - Parents will see all three console and not know the technical difference. They will see the price tag and buy the Wii....Zelda will be a big seller.

To make a blanket statement like you are doing is completely ludicrous. Of course, Nintendo is competition.

Sony isn't targeting cheapscate parents. They are targeting real gamers. Real gamers will ignore the Wii. The Wii has no HD support (something even the first Xbox had) and graphics barley higher then the first generation. The Wii will likely be very overpriced since any price over $100 is way to much for such an inferior technology.

And that's where Sony messed up.

There are far less "real gamers" than there are casual gamers, and a lot of "real gamers" also game on their PCs so the PS3 isn't always a must-have.

With a cheaper price, Microsoft has their feet in both markets.

Ah, is this in their business plan or something? How do you know this? If it were true, why then would they be releasing a lower end model?

The PS2 was a big success because it was pretty affordable. I still think you underestimate pricing. Its basic economics.

Like ive said before, I have friends/family who own/love the ps2 and have said that they will NOT be buying a PS3 until the price comes down. Some of them are REAL GAMERS.

I also consider myself a real gamer and I am also planning to wait to purchase one (at least for personal use ). I may end up NOT buying one at all since most of the games that I like are now on the 360 also (or exclusive to it).

Very well stated. This price tag is going to keep alot of people from buying it.

I'd say it looks that way in retrospect, though at the time both Nintendo and Sega were considered the heavyweights of the gaming world.

Other than GTA (which has already shown up on XBox) has MS managed to snaffle any of Sony's other prime franchises? GranTarismo? MetalGearSolid? And whatever else they have?

Didn't the same situation apply to the Playstation? Is it really a valid excuse considering the impact that console had? Personally I thought MS would at least come close to the PS2, and perhaps surplant them. After all, it was MS. Didn't turn out that way, but I'm still glad for the choice I made: all this time later and Halo rocks just as hard!

Weren't the Sega and Nintendo alternative cheaper, and by some distance?

This could prove to be a valid point. We'll just have to see how many people decide to buy HDTVs with their next gen consoles. The only survey I've seen for the XBox360 suggested that 60% of owners had an HDTV, and of those 10% bought their HDTV to complement the new console. That equates to 6% of all console buyers specifically buying a new TV just to better appreciate their new games. It's possible the figure will be higher if the options are games and movies.

I've got friends and family who've never owned a console but are looking forward to the PS3 since they are thinking of getting an HDTV in about a year and have heard this will be one of the cheapest ways of playing HD movies. Its capabilities are a sword with two edges (Lawrence).

Not at all. Sega hadn't been popular since the Genesis nearly 10 years before. The Saturn bombed, and the Dreamcast unfortunately little better.

Nintendo was well behind the original Playstation with the N64, and when the PS2 launched that was all that was around, the Gamecube was still a year away (launched the same week as the X-box).

I think he just meant same type of games, not same franchises per se. i.e. both will have great games in the popular genres like sports, racing, action, FPS etc.

Not for the PS2, the PS1 was a huge success and many people bought the PS2 just because of that, and many passed on the X-box as it was new and they were loyal to the PS name.

Could be a little different this time, but I think the PS3 name will still help it beat out the 360, but not by nearly as large a margin as the PS2 smoked the X-box in sales.

Sega was $100 cheaper, but gamers had given up on Sega by the time the Dreamcast launced in 1999. Nintendo didn't have a comparable system. The N64 was 5 years or so old and used Carts, no comparison to the PS2 and the Gamecube was a year from launching.

PS1 was very popular and the PS2 was a huge step up from Nintendo (64 I think?) and Sega Dreamcast. I dont think it was the same type of competition that it now has from the 360. The Wii IS competition, but obviously not as big as the 360.

GTA was exclusive to PS2 for at least 6 months I believe. MS has pulled that and now will have it at GTA4 launch.

As of now, MS do not have those 2 franchises and I think Final Fantasy is also exclusive to Sony.

BUT, if you remember the library that PS2 had before the xbox came out, MS just couldnt compete with it.

Now, MS has probably more exclusive titles (at least over PS2/3, not PC...Halo, Gears of War, Oblivion, Fable, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic to name a few).

Im talking about PS2.

Im not sure of this, but I thought they were all priced about the same. Someone else can chime in.

Yeah, Im just not seeing alot of people making a huge investment (HDTV, PS3 and BD titles) just for a gaming system. We'll see.

I completely agree, but im my opinion, one side of that sword is alot more dull.

I think the number of people turned off by the price will BY FAR outweigh those who will plop down the cash for an HDTV and PS3.

As usual, you all forget the rest of the world. Wii and PS3 will survive even if they sell zero (0) units in the USA. If the Xbox had sold zero units in the USA, M$ would never have started work on the 360.

You seem to be confusing your personal opinion (fascinatingly enough, on two pieces of hardware that don't even exist yet) with a de facto definition of a "real gamer." Your obsession with the technology aspect really puts you far, far away from what most people will consider a "real" gamer. I guess the people running and participating in this $65,000 tournament (http://www.evo2k.com/) aren't "real" gamers since the average game being run is close to 10 years old and there's only one HD game in the whole list.

Theres a rest of the world out there? Oh, maybe you mean Connecticut?

Those people aren't Sony's market...they dont care if they sell PS3's to them!

And remember...the PS3 is priced HIGHER everywhere else in the world.

And if Sony does not target parents (THE MAINSTREAM) then welcome to 3D0-ville, Sony.

Fanboys make me giggle.

Hasn't mattered before. Everything is higher in Japan. Booming economy and all.

Not just Japan.

MOD NOTE: If you insist on calling Wii (a worthy competitor to the PS3 and the 360) inferior technology, then please stay out of this thread. You're disrupting an otherwise fine discussion. -namja

Isn't the Tosh HD player about $920 in Japan, and not even available in Europe? From an HD perspective it seems everything is likely to be more expensive outside the US.

From what I've read the situation with developers remains pretty much business as usual with these next gen consoles. MS may or may not have more exclusives this time than they had last time, but the general support is so far just as heavily weighted towards Sony's system. Here's a snippet from an in depth article on the upcoming format war from the magazine EDGE*.

*It's a technicaly minded magazine covering all formats of computing, with most of it's adverts relating to upcoming positions in various levels of game development. In other words: it's market is tilted towards industy people.

www.edge-online.com

I'm honestly beginning to think that the 360/Wii combination will be perfect. PS3 doesn't seem to be offering anything that can't be obtained much less expensively. Wii doesn't have a chance to be market leader (the controller looks like fun, but will fall short for standard GTA/FPS/etc games), but will be a nice backup.

Real gamers just want to play games they enjoy, and don't get tangled up in bickering over tech specs and graphics.