Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Buy PS3 now or wait?

I have heard that they're very hard to program for, which probably explains your experience. I don't doubt that they have plenty of horsepower, but programming and optimizing for a chip like that (asymetrical multicore) has got to be very difficult.

That would be because Spiderman is a Sony film.

I mean I'd rather buy HD DVDs on principle. If it's available in both formats, I'll buy it on HD DVD, and if it's Blu-ray only, I have to really like the movie. I've bought a lot of HD DVDs that I've only been mildly interested in, just because I want to support the format.

Maybe it'll be a big waste.

Launches for both formats were pathetic. They designed the formats for the movie studios, not the consumers, but I don't think upcoming downloadable formats--whatever they turn out to be--are going to be any better. With those, you won't get physical media, but I'm sure they'll charge close to the same price, and I'm sure special features will be nothing compared to what we know now. So yeah, I see a long, drawn-out death for both disc-based formats, to be overtaken by overcompressed, featureless HD downloads. Okay, not really. I think it could go either way.

I bought a PS 3 just after Christmas for $599 and it had the 60 Gig Hard Drive. I bought it mainly for the DVD capabilities which I understand will be software upgraded in the near future.

One thing to consider is that I understand that Sony is taking about a $100 loss per unit to get the Blue Ray technology established. I have to wonder how long it will be before the price goes up. My PS 3 was cheaper than any of the DVD players that I was looking at. I found that very interesting.

I read that Microsoft takes a $126.00 hit on every 360 sold, Sony is taking close to a $300.00 dollar hit on the PS3 just to stay competetative. Where they make up the revenue is in the games that run for $50.00 dollars a pop.

Figures like that always seem to be just guesses by analysts, so I don't know how accurate they are, but last I read, Microsoft was at least breaking even on the price of the Xbox 360, with some estimating a profit of around $70 on each console. I've heard $300 loss on the PS3, too, but even if they are losing that much, I think Sony will probably be quicker to get production costs down. Still, it's a lot bigger gap to close, and Microsoft will always be ahead in a price war.

Nintendo is making profit on all of their hardware right out of the gate, so from a purely financial perspective, they're kicking both Microsoft and Sony tail. I wouldn't be surprised to see them overtake in market share this generation, either. They really have seemed to shake things up. I'll get a Wii after I get my QS8s. Soooooooon.

WOW, I had not heard that $300 number for the PS 3.

While the games do seem somewhat expensive, just look at the graphics and the content. Even with all the processors on the playstations, I'm sure that they are expensive to generate.

In any case, I think that the price of the Sony and Microsoft will, eventually, be adjusted such that these companies make a profit.

Sorry, the "they're expensive, but look at the graphics and content!" doesn't hold water. PC games have the same graphics and content (if not better in some cases), and they don't generally cost $60. This is simplly a case of gouging the consumer.

If it's a case of gouging the customer, then the customers are willing masochists.