It doesn't seem to have slowed in January either. The sales figures for Japan's week showed it very close to the DS and PSP in the 80 thousands for the week. The PS3 dipped back to the 30 thousands. Not a good start to 08 in Japan for the PS3.

To be fair the Japanese seem to be moving more and more to handheld gaming, but the Wii is still selling hardware so Wii Fit was a big hit there.

Well, I was going to buy a standalone player (I'm not a big gamer), but everyone basically told me that the PS3 as a Blu-ray player is superior to the standalones due to load times and the fact that it can self-update. I bought a PS3 Thursday night. So if you factor in that Sony is even luring in some non-gamers to buy its console, then the sales figures for it as a game console become even weaker.

And that has been the case so far. In addition to being updatable, the PS3 also is the best console to act as a multimedia hub. It has been a chicken/egg dilemma for Sony because of their decision to include great multimedia capabilities (that increased the price).

With the hidef disc war coming to an end, and blu-ray's future looking to be more certain than when the PS3 was first launched, the PS3 looks to be a better investment now than it did at launch. What was an iffy "nice-to-have" (blu-ray playback) with an uncertain future, now looks to be a solid feature.

Next-gen gaming, blu-ray playback, multimedia capabilities, free online all make a compelling case. Before someone who would not purchase a PS3 because of the "premium" charged for a questionable feature can now look at it as a beneficial next-gen feature.

It'll be interesting to see.

Although I like the PS3, and I appreciate Sony, come on. The 360 was also a good multimedia hub. The reason the PS3 was so expensive was due to blu-ray, period.

Well the PS3 is superior to all of the standalones right now. The question is whether it will be when the Blu Ray spec is finalized and the inevitable prices of final spec players start to come down. I don't feel like paying extra for the gaming capability of the PS3 and would prefer to buy a Blu Ray player at around $200-$250..and I'm confident we will see those prices next holidays...and if we don't I can wait longer.

Furthermore, it seems obvious to me that Sony will cutting the price of the PS3 at some point this year. According to a recent BusinessWeek, the price of the PS3 to manafacture is now the same price they are selling it for..before the price to manafacture was close to $800...so if they need to boost sales, they will cut the price down to much closer to 360 prices...just my 2 cents.

It was an "ok" multimedia hub... not good but serviceable. Having used the 360 as one since launch day I can appreciate what it can do... and understand what it can't. You don't think that including HDMI, card slots, wifi, and larger harddrives added to the cost?

I prefer my PS3 over my 360 as a multimedia hub also since it does have an internet browser as well. I do prefer the 360 when it comes to the online network but I guess the PSN is just a temporary store until they get Home up and running.

Having owned both, I think it's pretty obvious the PS3 has a better build quality. Of course Blu-Ray made it expensive, but the PS3 also feels solid, while the 360 feels like a toy.

I would love to have the content and online network of the 360 with the quality of the PS3 hardware. For now I'm quite happy with my PS3 exclusive and non-platform exclusive games.

I used to have a 360 but was really disappointed in it. It didn't feel like too much of a leap from the original Xbox (to me).
I loved the Xbox and hated the PS2, but I think the PS3 is superior to every gaming system out there. The Wii is okay, but it's also just like the Gamecube.
Personally, I think most of the games for it suck. The Wii Games thing is fun though, and hopefully the Wii Fit will make the system worth keeping.

So, after all that, the PS3 is just a great choice for gamers and techno-philes.
It's a great looking system too.

I am one of these people. I just bought into Blu-Ray for the first time by purchasing a PS3, and I am a non-gamer. But the PS3 seems like a a decent investment now where as I wouldn't have said the saem thing last month. Sure something better might come out in a year or two, but the PS3 is good enough for now.

Me too. That's what got me thinking about it. I bought a 360 on launch day and never considered a PS3...ever... then 2 weeks ago, I trade in my 360 and gear and get a PS3. Shocked everyone who knows me. They're now considering doing the same (especially when they heard what I got for a trade-in value)

The only reason I got into BR was bc of the PS3 and Im very pleased. Im now buying BRs faster than I did DVDs

I love my PS3 (and I've always been anti-Playstation) but I have to disagree. My girlfriend and I were talking the other night about how it's easily the ugliest piece of home theater equipment we own (while at the same time being easily the COOLEST!).

Back to Blu-Ray so that this isn't the place to talk shit about Nintendo or Microsoft outside of the rules of the VG forum.

I was in my BJ's Wholesale Club the other day and I noticed that they were BD-exclusive. I am not sure if they ever carried HD DVD though.

Were you searching for the best price on a Blu-Ray player? Which unit are you thinking about picking up?

I own both a PS3 and a 360, I still use the 360 substantially more (enjoy the games more atm). Visually, the games are on par with one another, the only exception being Uncharted which looks really nice and is PS3 only. The PS3 is certainly a bigger step up from the PS2 than the 360 is from the Xbox, but that's only due to the PS2 being inferior to the Xbox on a visual level.

That said, I love both my systems. However, I think the PS3 design is hideous. Easily the ugliest piece of electronics equipment I own that is not in my kitchen.

Nice comparison chart of Blu-ray players:
http://www.idoblu.co.uk/page2%20Blu-ray%20Players.html

Not really. I want to wait a few months to see what happens with stand-alones both in terms of profile and pricing.

My hope is that now that 2.0 is pretty much finalized, and now that HD DVD is all but finished, that Sony's CE partners will want to make some money on BD and will price their hardware to be more attractive than a PS3. I think BD price overall should look nicer in a couple months.

If you check the last column, some were actually verified in the future. There must be some die hard Blu-ray supporters out there that created a time machine for the benefit of us in the past.

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not but that's how most of the planet writes dates.

10/01/08 means January 10th, 2008.

I read it as October 1st, 2008.

It's a British site, though, so it's dd/mm/yy, not mm/dd/yy. January 10th, 2008.

Just trying to pass a light-hearted joke.

Actually, my first thought was that they had done this table recently (this year) and just entered 10/1 (for Oct 1st) ... and, like Excel, it was translated to the current year of 2008.

I did briefly think about the dd/mm/yy possibility, but for some reason, I dismissed it. Since all the prices are in UK, it should have been obvious.

I thought the new Sony Sapphire is supposed to be 2.0 but it shows 1.1 on there. Hmmmm.

This is strange, I agree. These were rumored to be 2.0.

Pro-B