I wouldn't say BD is winning quite yet.
HD isn't that far behind.
I would say BD is edging out HD right now but not really winning.
Too many varibles are going on with lawsuits and 07' X'mas coming up and lowering costs of HD players.

It'll probably end up taking about 3 yrs to settle down.
Approx 2010..because by then most will have converted to HDTV's by then.

You mean the same as how MS charges you $50 a year for somthing you can do on a PC for FREE (minus the cost of your ISP) or how they make you buy points instead of using a real money system (it's about 3/4 of a point for every cent) or even how everything else you might want like Wi-Fi, a Bigger HDD, or even HD-DVD drive are marked up way to high.

Yeah, My point is just as short-sighted as yours.
Consumer have to take charge of what they do with their money.
If you looked into everything a PS3 can do $600 is a great value.
Consumer have to know what they want in just about every product they buy. To assume that Sony is "cheating" their consumers is very narrow minded. Sony is not forcing their consumers with anything. They are not the only console brand out there. If you don't want or even plan to buy Sony, guess what??? you don't have to. MS or Nintendo will be more then will to earn your bussiness anyway they can.
I along with many people out there only have a PS3 cause we liked what the machine has to offer. I for one love my PS3 and it was worth all $600 that I spent on it.

We can really go back and forth on how each company is "cheating" it's consumers but then we wouldn't get anywhere. To assume that one company will be cheating you out of money just because you are not willing to spend as much on it as you are for the other is not rational thinking.

validates my point even further because all the things you described are optional purchases. It isnt like they force you to sign up for Xbox live when you buy a 360 and just tack $50 dollars on to the price. The exact same scenario would be if they forced you to buy an HDDVD player add on with every purchase of 360 and made the price $600 dollars as if they were giving you a deal. Show me one way that you are given an option not to buy into Bluray with PS3 and I will consider your argument valid. You do realize that Sony only owns about 2o% of the standalone HD player market and the only reason the Movie industry is backing them is bc of their promises with Bluray in PS3....Its a forced purchase no matter any way you look at it.

Okay..I hope it's not to late for this to continue.

Since I am on the other side of the mirror. I'll let you know how I see the 360. The system in it's self is a great gaming system and there is no way to spin that, it's awesome. But everything that you decribe as optional add cost to the machine were some of the stuff should already be included. Xbox live for example, it $50 dollars a year. For me it's no biggie cause am not much for online gaming anyway, but most of the replay value for the games that come out for the 360 comes from online play. Games like Gears and Halo have very short single player experiences, so in order for players to get the most out of those type of games your gonna need to spend to the extra $50 a year, over the course of a system generation that's at least $250 extra.

Another optional purchase is the wireless controller. You don't need it since MS also makes a wired control but if you want it what are you left with??? The option to buy batteries or buy another accessory from MS for about $40, that being the charge unit, in my eyes why not come with a usb plug and charge system???

What about the HD-DVD add-on that was released no more then 6 months ago. It sold a few units but since HD-DVD has taken a nose dive since where does that leave the consumer who purchased one??? In the you're a$$ed out section. The drive itself has very little resale value at this point and is all but useless, unless sales and releases of HD-DVD suddenly pick-up.

So those are my gripes with MS, if I want to do anything optional with my 360 other then just play games (and even that part has an extra cost if I want to go online) I have to pay up the A$$ for "optional" accessories, when most should come standard, such as the Plug and charge unit for my wireless control, or even if I need a Bigger HDD I should be able to do it but not for the $180 that they charge for the new 120gig version.

As far as the Blu-Ray on me PS3 like I said before, If I didn't want Blu-Ray, I could've bought a 360 and a Wii and called it a day.
Other then watching part of the Blu-Ray movie that was included with my system, I use Blu-Ray everyday on my PS3, but guess what for?? To play my games all of the PS3 games come on Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray is a standard on the system and there is no way around it, But for Sony's part they are releasing all of their games on Blu-Ray, If the only reason the PS3 had blu-ray was to watch movies then yeah I would feel way cheated, or if some of the games were to be released on DVD's that would be worst.

Every consumer out there has the option of NOT buying a PS3 if they feel they don't want Blu-Ray, and If you want a PS3 then you should already know that Blu-Ray is a part of the package and that is what you will be using for everything PS3. The consumer needs to take charge of what it does with his or her money and educate themselves on the needs they need fulfilled by any purchase they make.

You don't blame a Area-51 PC for being $5,000 cause you feel everything in it won't be used by you. OR do you??
You don't blame a TV for being 1080p with 10,000:1 color contrast with 3 HDMI port and other features that sells for $4,000.

Consumers need to know what fits their needs and make a Educated purchase based on that. As for me I have used every feature on my PS3 with the only Exception being the Wi-Fi since I don't have a PSP and I rather connect my Online connection direct.

The choice is in your hands Honda, Lexus, or Mercedes the choice is yours to make it's your choice and you can't hold the maker accountable for the purchase you made cause you didn't take the time to educate yourself on the product you bought.

of course sony says anything they think will sell consoles. too bad consumers are getting wise to their tricks.

Typically if it's sudden and without fanfare, it was them being fired, Jims case was so bad they didn't even wait for a replacement, that's pretty severe.

Yoshida didnt run sony. So if the share holders wanted him gone, he had to go.