At least some people can realise it.
The PS3/360 are just Sony's/Microsoft's way of making a little bit of cash.
The only thing people don't seem to realise is, right now the 360 is more important to MS than the PS3 is to Sony. Not quite, the playstation division has been far and away sony's most profitable division the past 13 years. Nearly every other sector Sony is in has very low profit margins(and were kept afloat by the playstation division for YEARS). MS makes money hand over fist in most of thier other divisions. Without the xbox MS still makes boatloads of money. Without the playstation sony may very well have been chapter 11 years ago. If the PS3 can't propel bluray to be the market king DVD is, Sony may very well have killed its most profitable division and failed to create one to take its place. Sony needs either bluray or the playstation to be hugely successful. MS doesn't need the xbox to be successful(they want it to be becasue it can bring in even MORE billions that they already make).
In the eyes of Sony, the PS3 has done it's job. It beat HD-DVD. Now it's just making a teeny bit of cash on the side as it idle's its way to it's eventual replacement. Bluray is FAR from being secured as DVD's replacement.
If you look back through history you would realise then ENTIRE Playstation franchise was made to help boost sales for other parts of Sony.
The Playstation was made to push the CD into more households, which it did. The audiotape was already usurped by CD years before the playstation came around.
The Playstation 2 was thought up in a time where people would walk into VideoEzy or Blockbuster and see one rack of DVD's.
They would then think to themselves if anyone actually borrowed them...DVD players had dropped in price to 200 bucks or less by the time the PS2 came out. DVD was already guaranteed to be a success PS2 or no PS2.
DVD didn't seem to have a very good future and the Playstation 2 was just what it needed, pushing the DVD format into homes.DVD's future was VERY bright when the PS2 came out. It was being used in the movie sector, the PC storage sector. Since it was primarily the same thing as a CD player, the players dropped in price VERY quickly(for comparison, bluray players would have to be below 100 bucks by next christmas to follow the path of the DVD.) The release of sub $100 dollar chinese DVD players within a year of the PS2's release had 10 fold more impact than the PS2 did. The PS2 gets more credit than it should when it comes to DVD adoption.
The Playstation 3 was made for the purpose of Blu-Ray.
As far as I see, it wasn't made to beat the Xbox360, although I'm not saying it can't. It's purpose:
Beat HD-DVD. It did. In Sony's eyes. yep, they basically bought the HD optical market, and the cost was its videgame market dominance. We just have to wait and see if what they bought ends up being worth the price they paid.
Now, that purpose has changed slightly into:
Sell more HDTVs, and in my country at least, there are deals where you can get a Sony Bravia and a PS3 in a package, relatively cheap. It seems to be doing that pretty well as well.
An analogy (A bad one).
Think of the PS3 as the Wii.
Nintendo sold the Wii, not for the purpose of having the Wii beat everyone else, but in the hope that it will get you to buy all the accesories that come with it. Extra Wii-motes, Nun-chucks, Steering Wheels etc.
In the same way the PS3 was sold to try and move those Sony Bravias, to get those Blu-Ray discs off the shelf.
So far, like the Wii, it's doing that.
Microsoft on the other hand is a totally different story. No matter how hard you try and argue, it's a fact that it's slowly losing market share to Apple. (Mac shipments grew 9 times faster that PC in Q2 this year, in the US). The reasons for that don't matter, although becoming seemingly more obvious. And with that Apple has gone from a 5-8% marketshare 10 years ago to roughly a 12-15% marketshare in the OS market today. Oh, and MS office is the best selling productivity software for macs.
The fact is, Windows and Microsoft Office are the main sources of income for MS, and slowly thats starting to fade away.
If you check it out, Microsoft makes little/breaks even/loses money on nearly everything else it does.While they're OS market has gone down very slowly, the OS that took it away STILL buys their next largest product for it(office). MS makes money on their peripherals...what exactly are they losing money on BESIDES the xbox?
Bring in the XBOX. This little machine was made to try and remind developers about DirectX on PC. This was at a time where the PC market was rapidly slowing down compared to consoles. The PC market has grown at a faster rate than consoles for the past 20 years...when in the heck did you get that idea from? The PS2 had standardized DVDs and the PC was still running off those inferior versions they called CDs (mostly anyway, it was only a couple of years ago they stopped selling CD versions for popular games).In case you didn't notice PC games don't actually run off of the media they're shipped on...there was no reason to use a DVD that was more expensive then a couple CD's. Games in the past few years grew to the point where a single DVD was cheaper to make than 10 CDs'. Also, DVD drives had been standard long enough to be installed into the majority of computers still in use.
DirectX is made and owned by Microsoft (no-duh) and the Xbox was made to remind people about DirectX and more importantly the PC itself. Like Playstation 1/2/3 it wasn't made to suceed as a gaming console. The Xbox was the beginnings of the "thin net pc's" MS talked about YEARS ago. It was the first step in getting people comfortable with MS in the livingroom and be associated with fun and entertainment rather than just PC's(which intimidated many people back then) and antitrust suits.
Along comes the Xbox360. This little gadget was made to succeed as a console. Microsoft, this time around needs that money it lost from the XBOX. Sure it was intending on losing money, but not that much. They WANT to make the money back, they don't "need" to. Slowly but surely MS is making this into the end all be all media hub. They're doing it slowly as the market gets used to the functions slowly.
What I'm saying here is...
The PS3 is owned and supported by a company that leads the market in many areas of electronics and entertainment. Sony is HUGE, and it seems to be doing VERY well. The PS3 is the least of it's worries/problems/things to gloat about.you should take a look at the portfolios of these companies sometimes, as what YOu seem to think is the opposite of what is happening. Sony has had its electronics prowess usurped by MANY companies over the years.
The 360 is owned and supported by a company that also leads the market in one area. Software. Although Microsoft again is HUGE, richer than Sony. The way it's headed most people know it's not going to last. Currently the company is running off the massive profits it gained during the 90's. MS still makes more profit in a quarter than sony makes in a year.
For those of you who don't remember, Steve Jobs left Apple in the mid-80's and Apple went into a downward spiral during the 90s. That's the time Microsoft picked up what was left of the market and really established itself. Microsoft Office, 95 & 98.
However now Apple (back with Steve Jobs, although he really has very little to do with it) is having a comeback.
To be honest this has nothing to Apple or Microsoft, but merely consumers.
(In the 90's PCs did what people wanted better, now Macs do what people want better)
Yes, Microsoft is still on top. It will probably remain that way for a while, but the fact is the 360 has become Microsoft's fallback.
No matter how hard it's PC division gets hit the 360 will still keep selling. Nope, the 360 is the "client" in MS's hopes of an eventual client server home network. The PC(a media center PC) holds media and everything(and does the boring business tasks like doing your taxes, etc etc), and the clients(VG consoles, media extenders, etc)play that media thorughout the home. The 360 is meant to compliment the PC not replace it.
Ok, all of that is my opinions that I've formed after years of reading millions of newpaper articles etc.
That's all it is, an opinion, and you're welcome to disagree with it. But personally I think it explains a lot when it comes to why MS is a lot more pro-active with the 360 than Sony is with the PS3. It needs to be.They're proactive because it is the 2nd half of their 2 part vision...regardless of who else is in the market.
fluxorator
Wow, MS needs a little more credit htan you give it and you give Sony way too much credit. 
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