A break and warning label

First of all I'll be going away on an overseas trip and most likely won't be able to blog from there.

Secondly the warning label. I'm not sure if Sony is going to put this anywhere on the box of their lower priced 40GB Playstation 3 ($399 in the USA), but one of the things they have dropped from this version is backwards compatibility with PS2 games (according to Sony rolls out cheaper 40GB PS3 in InfoSyncWorld). Considering that there are very few compelling games for the Sony Playstation 3 this is a possible deal breaker. This especially so since there are a lot of Playstation 2 games still available (and still getting released). From what I understand, to get backwards compatibility you have to buy the 80GB Playstation 3, which is apparently due for a price drop - probably down to $499 - before Christmas. Hopefully Sony won't decide to remove backwards compatibility from the 80GB version when they drop the price.

Price drops and format wars

Apparently an Xbox 360 price drop (according to this article from PC World) is almost certain. Oh well it had to come, I knew it was just a matter of time when I bought my Xbox 360 six weeks ago.

The price drop on the HD DVD player add-on for Xbox 360 really doesn't affect me. What I wonder though is whether the consortium backing this HD format is getting concerned because they are falling behind (see "Target to only sell Blu-ray players in stores" on Engadget HD). It is amusing that sales of the Sony PlayStation 3 with its integrated Blu-ray player are bolstering Blu-ray players so much. Lets hope the consumer wins this High Definition format war.