[quote name='willardhaven']At $299 I would definitely consider a PS3. I don't get why everyone hates the PS3 so much, the exclusives are good and the multi-platform games are fine with the added benefit of the best current controller.
The point of the PS3 was to help win the Blu-Ray HD-DVD war, and I think it played a part in that.[/QUOTE]I think it will drop down to $299 by the end of the year (epescially if they come out with a slim or if the RSX + Cell are combined. T he console is perfectly fine overall (I truly love mine), just some like to hate on it because it seems to be the cool thing to do.
Well, that was part of the reason for sure. Technically, Sony wasn't suppose to drop the PS3 price in 2007 (their original goal was to hold its price tag, break even in late 2007, then probably drop in 2008). But since they really wanted to assure Blu-ray became the HD format, they went ahead with the price drop/cheaper SKU (down to $400, to match the cheapest blu-ray player at the time). Also, Sony's Electronics/Movie division chipped in quite a bit with PS3 marketing in 2007, which explains why we saw so many PS3 commercials in late 2007, price drop, and a good spike in sales. Once Sony achieved the goal of making blu-ray the HD format, they chose to not drop the price to make up for the 2007 price drop. And actually, PS3 was doing very well from January 08 - August 08 where it actually outsold 360 worldwide, but the 360 pricecut really helped the 360.
[quote name='Ronin317']What makes you say that only 20-25% of people would pay for the service? Not that I have numbers on Live, but online gaming is very important to a lot of people.[/QUOTE]Although there's a lot of PSN accounts created (although I mostly say a lot of those numbers comes from people who created 2nd accounts for losing password/email, sharing accounts, various foreign accounts, having a few accounts for various family members on one console, etc.), the percentage of PS3 owners actually connected to PSN is a lot lower. When going out to most stores and such, there's actually a lot higher percentage of people who don't even connect their PS3 online (some have no internet, some lack wireless router/ethernet cable, some don't see a reason to go online, some fear they'll get a virus, etc.). I'd roughly say 60% of PS3 owners worldwide go online (the number in Japan I know is VERY low). Next, the majority of PS3's userbase comes from Europe, and there are no PSN Cards or any form of pre-paid cards there. If the only way to pay for PSN was by credit card or something, that would also cut down on the amount of people who can subscribe. And there are many PS3 owners I know who said if they have to pay for PSN, they wouldn't be playing their PS3 online (it's one reason they are not paying for XBL Gold, or some are perfectly happy with XBL Gold and only use PSN because it costs them nothing).
Having a free service is one of the main promises Sony is trying to hold up on, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.