I have a recipe for Sony's languishing PS3 that could put them on top in console wars again. Of course I don't know if anyone at Sony knows what the hell they are doing anymore. So they probably can't catch a clue even when it's about to smack 'em in the face. Nonetheless...

First, of all let briefly me define the problem: The PS3 is way to bloody expensive! Now, I could go on with all the driveling details, but in the end, that's the bottom line. Nuff said...

Now the solution, as good solutions tend to be, is forward looking:

Sony should release a low-end discless PS3.

That's right, no Blu-ray drive, not even a DVD drive! Seem crazy? Not at all. Disc drives are loosing steam as main stream media. Flash drives and Internet delivery are taking over. Sony could embrace this trend early and thus dominate it. Granted a single-layer Blu-ray disc can hold 25GB, but many games do not require that much content. 2 and 4 GB flash drives are on the verge of being very cheap, and well designed games can be augmented with online extras --additional textures, soundtracks, bonus levels, etc. (An added bonus is that flash-stored games would load very fast!)

No doubt Sony might be put off by the notion of a discless model b/c it wouldn't push Blu-ray into every house. But then they miss the point. Besides, once people get their foot in the door w/ a PS3, then they have a huge incentive buy an Blu-ray add-on drive in the future. To make it even more attractive, the drive need not be an external box, rather it could be designed to easily install directly into the PS3 unit. How cool is that?!

This discless console would also give Sony a much better distinction between low-end and high-end models. The current distinction via hard drive size has no manufacture cost advantage and only serves to further discourage consumers --20GB verges on a joke.

With such a unit, Sony could drop the the price by 200-300 USD. That would beat XBOX 360 and even be in striking range of the Wii. And if that isn't enough to convince Sony, let me put it another way. I won't be buying a $600 PS3. But I would buy a $349 discless PS3 in a heart beat.  ¶ 11:57 PM 0 comments