With the price tag on the PS3, I will most likely not be buying one.   Especially with all this Blu-Ray problems and Sony is not the only company having problems with the Blu-Ray technology, in fact I think almost all the companies that have tried to use it are having issues.

Anyhow, the Xbox 360 price was a stretch, the PS3 price is just outright theft.

The whole Blu-Ray and HD controversy reminds me of the VHS vs Beta days.   I am sitting out of this argument and just going to wait and see which one wins.  Personally I think they both suck, but putting all my chips into one or the other at this point is a waste of time and money.  You never know when the rug will be pulled out from underneath you.  Again, look at what happened to Beta.

However, there are Xtreme PS fanatics out there that will shell out the doe to buy it, which only means the next generation console (no matter who releases it) will be that much more expensive.  As long as the market continues to bear the price, it'll continue to rise.   It's the same with the whole gas situation, people continue to pay even at $3 /gal, if you were the oil company what incentive do you have to lower the price if people are paying almost double now?

Ok ok, stepping off my soapbox.

I'm actually looking forward to the PS3.  This might be because I skipped-out on getting a PS2.  I'm not a fan of any "sony format" (read: beta, A-TRAC, Blu-Ray, etc), but I do think Sony got something right with the Playstation line.  I also like the fact that Sony specifically markets to my crowd (18+) as I got tired of dosing on mushrooms in order to save a princess with a penchant for reptiles a long time ago..  I'm awed by the specs (http://www.ps3land.com/ps3specs.php)of the thing.  Also, so far, it seems eminately upgradable (it has standards -- real standards, not sony standards -- compliant ports, it will support a variant of linux, and it supports state of the art audio and video).  As for the price, I look at it this way:
(all prices current of 09/27/2006)

New PS2	$100	amazon.com
HD DVR	$300	amazon.com
iPod	$429	amazon.com
Blu-Ray Player	$700	amazon.com
Total	$1,529

Suddenly $600 doesn't look so bad.  Some of the people I know that are currently balking at this price already own a PS2 and are considering buying a DVD player and/or HD DVR.  Except for the iPod (I already have one), I plan on buying a HD DVR and a new console at some point.

On the other hand, this is Sony.  They've been waging a war on standards for years (Microsoft, I'm looking in your direction).  There's been a talk about locking the thing down so much with DRM and "anti-piracy technology" that I wouldn't even be able to take a game that I've bought to a friend's house to play.  I remember when the the PS1 and PS2 came out and the screaming that came along with occasional crashes and buggy games.  Then there's the "war" that Sony's been waging with "chippers" and the like, constantly introducing new hardware and modifications with every rev of their console in an effort to curtail the efforts of these pirates who never sailed.

When I look at trailers that I've seen on G4 and games like White Knight (http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/whiteknightstory/index.html), though, I just build up more and more anticipation.  I've always considered the X-box a bit of a joke.  Nintendo's offerings just don't ring with my demographic (short of the friends I have that can play Kingdom Hearts for hours, nay, days on end).  I'm going to sit back, wait patiently, and see what happens.  The promises made by the marketing guys a year ago are beginning to unravel -- but maybe that means the engineers will add a little more flexibility to the system.

I've had both a PS and a PS2. I chose not to get a PSP. And at first I was gung-ho about PS3. But bundling additional "options" I don't want and jacking the price on me? Pass.

I go back to my original assertion: the PS2 as a DVD player is functional but not optimal. It is significantly slower to do simple things, like pull up and navigate through the DVD menu than an el cheapo DVD player (or my workstation from 2000 that plays DVD). Unless PS3 dramatically breaks this example, I don't consider it viable for playing DVDs.

Also, I have to agree, toss the iPod out because I'm not going to be slapping a PS3 to my hip. So it's functionality as a music player.... tttthhhhbbbbbpppppt. And if I don't care about my music player being portable, there are better deals already out there.
 
And the linux support... again, I'm not chalking this one up as a plus to Sony, either. Yeah, that released a linux version for PS2. You had to have the hard drive. Okay, no problem as that's perfectly understandable. Now let's talk about support. Let's talk about what could use it for... if I want to run linux, I'm not going to put it on a game console. I was all happy, happy, joy, joy when this option came out for the PS2 and then reality set in. I was better off slapping linux on a workstation or laptop (which would also be portable - hey, how about that) or even better, I could just grab an appropriate live CD when I need linux (like when I do security work). So again, Sony isn't going to get any love from me on this one, either.

A good point, and a not-so-good point..  Consoles have never made decent "media players."  That's a case of right-tool-for-the job.  I don't think the point about linux is quite right, though.  I'm not talking about a "boot disk" so you can try to write your term paper using a system that's obviously not designed to do that.  I'm talking about a piece of [pretty nice] hardware running an open OS.  This worked wonders for other consumer devices.  But I think it really comes down to how "open" (or "openable") the system/os really is.

I'm not looking for an iPod/stereo (I have one of each).  I'm looking for a media centre.  I've been very impressed with the gang over at MythTV.  But its hard for me to justify a new media computer when we could really use a new workstation for something else.

Again, I'm not here to beat the drum for Sony..  I'm just saying that I'm not going to write them off immediately.  I fall right into their demographic -- and for once I'm happy about it.  If I hear one more 30+ year old rave about how great Kingdom Hearts is, I may pass out.

Yea I concur...
The main selling point for the Xbox360 is MS Live...
in the console market there is no peer to MS networking support.

Sony has found this out the hard way. Combined with its crapilicous HDD and network support, and obscene pricing structure. Sony is well on its way to Nintendification.... and maybe even getting Segafied in the American market.

Luckily Japan will support Sony no matter what excrement they shovel out and fanboi's in American will assure it no less that a Nintendo share of the market.

However the days of PS / PS2 utter supremacy are over.

All hail our MicroSoft Overlords...

I for one welcome them... (especially since there so easy to hack).

*warms up soldering gun*

Sounds great in practice, but it is absolutely lousy from a security perspective. Someone finds a vulnerability and stands up a rogue server, say bye-bye PS3. Or worse yet, it turns into another bot engine. Yeah, I'm jumping up and down with joy. The only solution is to figure out a way to patch the sucker. Oh, joy. I guess Sony wanted to be more like Microsoft than we thought.