Sony PS3 With No Blu-ray: Would you?
Filed under: Gaming, Sony Playstation 3 | By: Peter Chubb
Posted on: October 16, 2008 | 59 Comments
The Sony PS3 got off to a very slow start when it was first launched, a few price cuts later and things are looking better for the next-gen games console. Consumers have attacked Sony and asked that the price should be reduced even further: however Sony maintains that they already make a loss on the machine.
Gamers have argued that the price of the Sony PS3 should be more in line with the Xbox 360, but Sony have always said that they cannot do that as they make a loss on the PS3 as it is. The reason they say is because of the hardware inside, mainly the Blu-ray player.
So we have hit on a good point, if the PS3 did not have a Blu-ray player it would then be cheaper to purchase. Would having a PlayStation 3 with no Blu-ray player bother anyone. I have had a PS3 for 6 months now, and in that time i have only played a Blu-ray movie twice.
If you had the choice to have a cheaper PS3, and did not come with a Blu-ray player, would you buy that console?
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I would not say the PS3’s use of Blu Ray gives it an advantage over the XBox 360. Frankly, the Blu Ray drive is what turned me off from the PS3. I would rather have a PS3 without Blu Ray than with. I don’t care about Blu Ray being used for PS3 games and for hi-def movies. XBox 360 used HD DVD by the way but offered the HD DVD as an optional drive they didn’t force HD DVD on XBox 360 buyers. Score one for Microsoft!
Blu Ray’s restrictive DRM and the high cost of Blu Ray players especially in the current economy (even if they lower the price to $150 dollars it won’t be enough in a bad economy I can get a cheaper DVD player capable of up-sampling standard DVDs to hi-def.) are non starters for me. Also the fact that digital distribution for HD video is improving are not encouraging for Blu Ray.
Sorry for the double post but from the beginning HD DVD was cheaper than Blu Ray and more consumer friendly with lesser DRM (it had DRM but it also offered Managed Copying) Blu Ray is anti-consumer entirely with no provision for fair use rights and more costly. Blu Ray won by the studios choice — it wasn’t that Blu Ray was more popular among consumers it was that more studios exclusively made hi def releases on Blu Ray Disc only. When more content is exclusively on Blu Ray consumers wanting hi def content won’t have a choice in HD DVD.
Only a complete fool would leave out the blu-ray since without you would have a games console unable to play games. or if the discs were changed something like a ps2.5! Also whole cost isn’t the blu-ray a lot comes from the cell whic has 8 processers and is used to do particle physics since attaching 4 ps3s together is cheaper than a powerful computer to do the same maths
The Cell Processor is also part of the problem I have heard some negative things about it as well.
I would only buy a PS3 if I wanted a Blu Ray player to play movies on Blu Ray Disc. For me a video games console’s most important capability is game play features. I do not need or want a Blu Ray player. I need/want a video games console with gaming as the primary feature. That is why I would be more inclined to get an XBox 360 and/or Nintendo Wii — as a matter of fact I went for the Wii and have been a proud Wii owner since last year.
I would rather get a separate video games console and media extender box like Apple TV or Roku than an all-in one combo that costs more and focuses less on gaming.
The PS3 has hidden costs — the original cost was $599 because of Blu Ray and the Cell processor’s expense. Hardly anyone would buy it at that expensive price so they lowered it but in doing so are taking a loss on the console for market share. That $599 price is just for the console. You still have to buy games for it and/or third party accessories like Ethernet cables for connecting the PS3 to the Internet, a re-chargeable Dock to re-charge the PS3 controllers.
That adds to the cost. I would probably end up spending over $650 dollars total if the PS3’s price was still $599 to get the PS3, PS3 games, and accessories.
That is a waste of money especially in the current economic climate I’m not spending that much money unless I need to pay bills that amount like electricity, water, gasoline for a car, a house payment etc.
No, I wouldn’t have bought it. I bought the PS3 specifically to watch BluRay movies once HDDVD threw in the towel.
I already had a wii to play _fun_ games. I sure wouldn’t have bought a POS Xbox (all of my friends are on their 3rd or 4th xbox, not including returns for repair). If I wanted to play those boring FPS games, I’d just buy them for the PC which is far superior than an xbox.
The “ONLY” reason for the bluray and the hdmi crap is so they force everyone that has the player to keep them connected to the internet “even the none ps3 players” so they can monitor your activities 24/7 . And when They “think” your trying to watch a illegally burnt movie or connected to a recorder through the hdmi or certain dvi’s they can deactivate your player and/or tv hdmi port and stop it from working through their digital rights copy protection . GOOGLE it if you don’t believe it . The governments should force the company’s to Label and/or announce this to the public on player labels and/or disc covers and the rest of the DRM loving scum suckers in the media business should be out right ashamed for this secret slide of hand they are not informing the general uninformed public of . This is the real reason for all the updated firmwares . So im boycotting bluray and bluray players . dont forget the “you can only watch your disc in 1 player or yours gets diactivated that way too ” crap . I seriously upset after researching this for the last 9 hours . what would you do if you bought a ps3 and you watched a movie and in the middle of the film got a popup saying “you have a illegal action your system has been diactivated ” and your ps3 stops working , you call tech support and tell them they say you shouldn’t of pirated even if you didn’t . your just S.O.L. they will tell you to purchase a new ps3 if it hasnt disabled your tv’s dvi or hdmi port from accepting anymore players . Bill gates has alot to complain about so do the rest of you mindless zombies who have no true idea WTF you got yourself into .
I agree with FG’s statement about the negatives of Blu Ray. This is why I’ll never buy a PS3 or any Blu Ray player. I don’t want the highly restrictive DRM. I’ll just keep buying standard DVDs without copy protection and get a DVD Player capable of up-sampling them to near HD quality and/or use a TV Tuner to record my favorite programs to my computer and then burn to DVD and/or copy my existing DVDs to my computer.
Sometimes I might even record a program using my VCR as an analog video and convert it to DVD. No way am I buying Blu Ray!
If ps3 didnt have a blu ray player i wouldnt care because it would be cheaper and i would buy it, sony should make ps3’s without blu ray and ps3’s with blu ray so people have an option.I know that if ps3 was cheaper i would have one right now. That was not a smart move by sony because who really use’s blu ray a lot???.