See pictures of the PS3 and other Blu-ray Disc players ...

Los Angeles (CA) - Back in March, when Sony Computer Entertainment President Ken Kutaragi made of one of the most critically important and highly anticipated entertainment devices in his company's history in order to give it time to get one key component - specifically, Blu-ray Disc - ramped up and working properly, his plea for patience met with largely positive response. As the 17 November release date draws nearer, many of the technical issues regarding Blu-ray have been ironed out, though some still remain even as Blu-ray players are made publicly available. The curtain has risen, if partly, on the stage of high-definition video; and if you peek under the curtains, it seems the PlayStation 3 is ready for its debut.

The PlayStation 3 display as seen from the Nintendo booth, during the last (and literally the final) E3 Expo last May.

But the world has changed even since March. The continually skyrocketing price of crude oil has dragged general inflation higher in North America, precipitating a decline in household disposable income. A re-emergence of terrorist threats has dampened general consumer confidence. A lower than anticipated customer uptake for the first HD DVD players, and later the first Blu-ray players, suggests even early adopters remain skeptical about either format's ability to eventually reign supreme. While analysts accepted news in May of the PS3's as right in line with expectations, recently, opinion has shifted in favor of nay-sayers who believe consumers will find those prices too expensive for a game console, with or without the high-def DVD bonus.

Those negative opinions were given validity by a recent Wall Street Journal article that opened up the old questions again, in light of new economic realities. All of a sudden, a high-dollar game console seems wrong, at least for the North American market. And if it's Blu-ray - a high-definition disc format whose general direction some say appears pointed towards eventual failure - that's the reason for the high price that might preclude consumer acceptance of an otherwise magnificent game console, then why is Blu-ray there in the first place?

"I think the key question is whether consumers' interests in adopting the next generation DVD player is at a point that their decision to buy the next generation [game] console is computed upon that other decision," stated Michael Cai, director of broadband and gaming for Parks Associates.

When the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's original Xbox were first introduced with built-in DVD players, Cai reminded us, they were considered nice bonuses. But DVDs had already been established and accepted by consumers for at least the prior few years, and what's more, there was only one DVD format for them to consider. As a result, gamers purchased either console for their perceived virtues as game consoles, even - and sometimes especially - if they already owned DVD player consoles.

"At this point, the next generation DVD player market is so nascent," said Cai. "So it's difficult to predict whether consumer decisions to buy a console will be heavily influenced by the decision [on] next generation DVD players. I'm sure a certain percentage of the gamers will view a cheap Blu-ray drive, integrated into PS3, as an integral part of the considerations, but I'm just not sure whether the mass market consumers will view it that way."

"Sony's got a lot on the line here," remarked Chris Crotty, senior analyst for consumer electronics at iSuppli. "Last year around this time, Howard Stringer gave that very big public speech saying there were two key technologies to Sony's future: the Cell processor and Blu-ray. That says a lot right there. They're not going to give up."