I think what has eroded the Playstation fanclub was people realizing that they were being forced to favor the Bluray while it may very well become the Betamax of the new century. If the PS3 offered to have the DVD player seperate I think things would be much different. I prefer freedom of choice while I have a choice, Sony assumed the Bluray would be the choice.
Yea, including Blu Ray and a hard disk simply made this unit too expensive to sell. Even if the PS3 was 10x more powerful than the 360 or WII, it’s just to much.. Price reductions have helped, but really, it’s still too expensive.
Had blu ray been out for a while and production costs were minimal, it might have been a different story. But Sony was using the PS3 to launch blu ray, etc...
IMO, Sony has certainly fallen from the company they used to be. They have produced several technological flops in the past decade... the flopped on the MD player by charging way too much, 8mm video format (which had great audio capability), PSP (an excellent video game system, but way overpriced), laptop batteries (the ones that explode), and the PS3, and probably on blu ray.
Notice how MS axed the 360 without a hard drive - now the minimal model comes with a small flash drive. They were smart by not including a drive in the lower model, as it made it more affordable. Now it seems that eventually, 360 games will require a drive - and during a time when costs to produce the system are dropping.
I’m not a 360 fanboy - it’s too expensive and has it’s own faults - I would have put 4 cores instead of 3, and made sure it didn’t overheat etc. I like the ps3, believe it or not, it’s just too expensive and it’s too late now - though it would make a great linux box. Same with the PSP - a great system that I’d like to own, but it was way overpriced on introduction, and is still to expensive.
IMO, the bottom line is that all 3 systems are too expensive. I just bought a used Gamecube for $39 and am happy with the (used) games, which cost $7 - $20 on average. The PS2 is going to sell for $99 soon, but even that’s too much $$. I think I’d buy a PS2 for $70 though..
And even some games for my PC, such as F.E.A.R, cost a whopping $20 and the gameplay was excellent. I may be alone, but I’m no longer paying top dollar for games or consoles....