Spontaneous Monotony

Despite being (for the moment) an inferior choice as a games console compared to the Xbox 360, the PS3 looks like making a name for itself as a media hub. Not only the Blu-ray player (the PS3 is currently about £400 cheaper than Play.com’s cheapest standalone player), but now it will also have a digital tv addon and Tivo/Sky+-like recording functions. I think this is actually quite a good idea on Sony’s part - they’ve realised that the Xbox 360 probably has too much of a head start for them to compete on a games-vs-games basis (as with the previous generation, the Xbox was a better console than the PS2 but had poorer games and no momentum), so they now plan to get people to buy them for their media functions. I suspect there are probably more people looking for a Bluray-playing PVR than there are looking for a games console with a lacklustre software library.