Sony, Sony, Sony...
People are finally beginning to see what I've been saying all along...
Sony's main reason for releasing the PS3 has always been to give Blu-Ray a push. Unfortunately, this is making the console extremely expensive. It's so expensive that many, many people are not going to buy it when it first hits the market (if they'll ever buy it at all).
It seems the only people saying the PS3 is cheap... is Sony... and that's like... duh. Sony's not going to say their product is too expensive. Ever. They keep saying that "it's cheap for a Blu-Ray player" and people keep saying "we're not buying it for Blu-Ray!"
The jump from VHS to DVD was an enormous improvement. People argue that, side-by-side, HD-DVD/Blu-Ray vs DVD is also an enourmous improvement... but only for people with the capability of watching HD content. How many of your friends or family own an HDTV? My cousins might have one. It's widescreen, and they were watching ESPN. So I know of one person with an HDTV. The rest of us probably won't consider upgrading unless our current TVs explode.
But even then, HDTVs are still far, far more expensive than regular TVs. It's not at all like saying "oh, rats, my CD drive melted... ooh! DVD drives cost the same! I'll get one of those!" Granted DVDs have been around for a long time already, but that's my point.
HDTV hasn't been around that long, yet. It's still too expensive for most people to justify, especially when they think DVDs are good enough. Which, in my opinion, they are. If you get a long movie, you'll start to see some odd compression, especially on a computer, but, for the most part, it's a far beyond VHS quality.
I think this new-fangled High-Definition movement is moving too fast. People aren't ready and they're simply not going to buy it, and as a Slashdot commenter said, Sony is trying to create demand for a new format with a product whose price can only be justified if you already have demand for that format.
There's no demand for HD media, yet. Not by the majority of regular folk who can't see any sense in shelling out almost several thousand dollars (PS3 + HDTV) just to be able to SEE the HD content. What's the point in buying Blu-Ray without HDTV? There is none. Just forget it. It won't look any different. Sure Blu-Ray holds a lot more data for games, but why? I don't think games will get bigger, just prettier with larger textures (that you'll only see a difference on HDTV).
See what I'm getting at?
Microsoft is pushing HD media, too, but their success isn't tied to if HD-DVD succeeds. Sony wagered their entire gaming division on the success of Blu-Ray... if Blu-Ray fails, the PS3 will remain extremely expensive in an attempt to glean some profits off developing an entirely new format.
I pretty much just went over what everyone else is saying... but I still enjoy watching these developments. Now if only Sony could understand that people started becoming distrustful of them when they released that horrible rootkit in their music CDs... They probably won't. But it would be very pleasing to me, at least, if Sony as a console manufacturer dissolved much like Sega and someone new took their place and added something awesome to the market.
Maybe give Nintendo a little competition again. 