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Originally posted by: Jay
I don't understand why everyone thinks adding BluRay to the PS3 is going to send the MSRP through the roof. The original PS2s sold for $300 USD, but they cost a lot more than that to produce.
Sony is in this for the long haul, and they'll take another loss on the hardware in order to achieve market dominance. They also know that modern "game machines" are being sold more to young adults with deep pockets than to kids, so it wouldn't surprise me if they take the chance of bumping up the introductory price to $400 USD and easing their losses a bit. Game addicts will bitch like crazy, then hand over their credit cards.
I don't think Sony will go with a rich man (BluRay) / poor man (no BluRay) dual PS3 release. Don't forget that incorporating BluRay into the PS3 isn't just about being able to play movies; the extra storage space will certainly help push the next generation of games even closer to reality. With two different machines, developers would be forced to choose between maximizing game quality by taking advantage of the massive capacity of BluRay or maximizing sales by making games that are compatible with both machines. You also end up with format confusion among consumers, not to mention a separate production line, which would drive up manufacturing costs even further. Running two different lines might even negate any cost savings incurred by building a non-BluRay machine.
Yes Jay but like I said the DVD format was 3.5 years old when the Playstation 2 came out. By then the DVD format had dropped in cost enough that it could be encorperated cheaply. Not to mention that even the cheapest players at the time were superior for playback then the Playstation 2. If Sony releases Playstation 3 in late 2006 then Blu-Ray will be only 6 months old. Not enough time for the format to drop enough to be encorperated into the console cheaply. So putting Blu-Ray into the console will definutly raise the consoles price through the roof. $500 at the very least probably more. Not to mention Xenon is set to come out the same time with a much cheaper price and likely equal graphics and software support.