Sony shares were down 3.2 percent at 5,080 yen, underperforming the Tokyo stock market’s electrical machinery index , which lost 1.51 percent.

A spokeswoman for Sony’s game division, which in March delayed the PS3 launch to November from spring 2006, declined to comment.

They are also taking it up the rear on the battery recalls for Dell and Apple.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6154726.html

The complaint about the ps3 pricing seems strange as well, especially when it’s said, “Most likely I’ll finally be dipping the toe in water when the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive is released.” Add the cost of that and the $100 wifi for the 360 and I bet both sku’s will cost a little more than the ps3. Oh and another thing, what happens when content holders decide to use the ICT(Image Contstraint Token), looks like you’ll have to buy an additional hdmi cable for the 360, if they ever make it, unless you like hd playback at less than hd image quality.

As far as the drm issue goes, may I entreat as to what solution you have prevent rampant piracy of content in Malaysia and China where the currency is so much weaker than ours that they can’t afford the movies you or I can? The normal price for movies here might be the equivalent of a months or more of wages there. I personally hope Sony wins in stopping hi-def content redistribution through illicit channels. Note I said hi-def, if somehow pirates can only get standard-def from blu-ray discs then I think Sony will be victorious.

I think the mylo will fail. But hopefully they’ll get a little revisionist and release a psp with 1GB of flash built in.

I predict that ps3 will come out on top, 360 in 2nd, and the wii in 3rd by 2008. To me the ps3 has the greatest span of gaming categories. If you want anywhere from kiddie games to mature games developed by western to eastern developers, there’s the ps3. If you want anywhere from kiddie games to mature games developed by mostly western developers, there’s the xbox360. I know they’re trying in Japan, but I don’t expect them to gain any ground anytime soon there. If you want anywhere from kiddie to teen rated games developed by mostly eastern developers there’s the wii.

This is off topic, but I really wonder if nintendo will survive the generation after next. Non-gamers might be a big market now. What will be the appeal to non-gamers of the next new generation console from Nintendo when they already have enough tech for the simple mini-games, simple puzzles, like sudoku, and musical simulators that they love. One thing I gotta say about efficianados of mature-themed gaming, they always seem willing to go for the subsequent next-generation tech when it’s ready. I guess Nintendo will have to release a new peripheral to maintain interest.

While popular press these days will also say Sony has no respect for gamers, I think it is too soon to say so. The PSP is a great piece of hardware, as you admit. And it is far from a failure some wish it to be. UMD movies have failed — for predicable reasons, IE pricing– but the PSP lives up to it’s main purpose as a gaming device. I don’t see how DRM is terribly relevant to the ultimate success or failure of the PSP. And at $200 the PSP is reasonably priced for what it does.

I believe 20%-30% of current PSP owners can be classified as hardcore gamers, but I believe only 5% may be interested in home-brew. The press seem to think home-brew may be crucial for the PSP success and sees Sony’s efforts to prevent it draconian, I, however, think home-brew is of negligible importance.

$600 is too much to pay for a game system. But if you don’t care about HDMI, the base model is only $100 more than the premium Xbox 360 with a built in Bluray player. But depending how these console wars play out, I may end up buying American (hello Microsoft).

Sony does worry me. But depending on the adoption of HDTV sets in the next 2 years, their expensive gamble may pay off. If Sony does fail in the console market, it will be for vastly different reasons than Sega’s failure.

Again, Sony’s arrogance got them in trouble with online connectivity. They will pay the price by playing catchup on the live front.

Yes, price is the #1 concern, but since Sony already claims to be running out the hardware at a loss, we probably won’t get the price drop until the hype for PS4 is on. The best time to buy gaming hardware from a pennywise and games standpoint is at the end of its lifecycle which means Sony is targeting the early adopters with its initial launch. Early adopters do care about DRM.

My thinking is if they are going to have it be more expensive than they better make it have as many desirable features as possible and not shackling it with another proprietary DRM would be a positive feature.

If the PS3 is $600, then fine. I’ll pay for it. But I better be getting the games for $10 a pop at the most. I personally don’t think it’s even worth the $60 for most games currently. I remember when I’d save a whole year to get somewhere around that when I was a kid if I was lucky. Sony will blister and die if they get a reality check soon.