And now let's think of all the things we need to actually play games. The console, the controller it comes with, and a game. That is the whole point of a game system. Not the definition of movies it can play, not the number of USB ports, but the games. For people who want to just play games, it's a total waste of money. And let's face it, most gamers want games, not USB ports. Also, touching on the Wii is for little kids thing(eight months later), it really isn't. It is, in fact, for everyone. Let's ignore the fact that it has games everyone can play and a simplistic learning curve. The price. $250, a Wiimote/nunchuk, and a game. It serves its purpose. It can play a game right out of the box, without needing to even buy one. No bunch of extra stuff that's not even required to play games and jacks up the price as a result. And that helps. Majorly. Everyone can buy a Wii. Only the hardcores who want/can afford to shell out $600 on a PS3 can get one. That throws off so many potential buyers.
Most homeowners would rather pay bills than buy a PS3, or do some important things with that money, because $600 is way too much to play games. If Sony dropped all that extra crap, and just keep what they HAD to(which would be standard discs, let's face, Sony would dominate again if they were all on standard discs, they really didn't need to try and up the competition, they had this generation from name alone until it had Blu-Ray), it would sell fast. It would get good games because of it. It would get more games, since it'd be easier to develop for. It didn't need Blu-Ray. Nothing even needs Blu-Ray right now. Pretty much everything is still standard, and people are fine with it. Standard discs don't strain your eyes to watch, they're just fine. Why should people get this better thing if they have to shell out so much money and not even need it? In the long run, once Blu-Ray becomes cheap, it might pay off, but who's to say Blu-Ray will be the standard by the end of the PS3's life? What if HD wins? What if it stays standard for longer? At this point, we really don't need anything beyond that. Sony pretty much has this whole generation riding on this gamble with the format war. And it's bad for the PS3. Sony's already doing fine with their Blu-Ray players, why did they need to put it in the PS3? Bigger discs? Sure, but a week before the PS3 came out, we were totally fine with the normal sized discs. Hell, even now, ten months after it's released, we're still fine with normal discs.
Sure, huge discs might be a nice feature, but it's an unnecessary feature. And once again, it raises the price. A higher price only alienates more people, and why does Sony need that? They could have done just fine with standard discs and stronger graphics, living off the PS2 name in both gamer's eyes and developer's eyes, but they chose the expensive risk. And if it doesn't pay off, will there be a PS4? Will they try the same thing with it? And even if the PS3 succeeds, it's missed the point entirely. You're supposed to get game consoles for games, not the shiny processors and large memory space. I'm not saying the PS3 isn't focused on games anymore, but with everything the PS3 has done that isn't required, it really hasn't won(if it does in the end). At least in my eyes.