The PS3 doesn't seem expensive, IT IS expensive.
The PS3 is much larger then previous system's, which had been a huge criticism of the competition. This system is also been plagued with hardware issue's from research, development, production and release. The new PS3 is also appearently a beast of a system to code games for, as noticable by a shift in developers. Blu-ray is a new and dangerous platform, much like Betamax...only time will tell if this is another dead format from Sony or finally a winner. Sony's online service is currently...pathetic. Already surpassed by Nintendo who didn't see fit to provide online for their previous console, Sony began their with the PS2. The weakness of this was made evident when the GT demo downloads for PS3 (keep in mind the low selling numbers at this point) crashed their service.
Sony is however a beast in the gaming industry and still has substantial power and backing. Sony needs to overcome their early release stumble and convince people that the $600 low end price tag isn't a slap in the face. If they can do this and continue to run rampant on game output for their systems, then the PS3 may very well continue Sony's current dominance of the console wars. Currently this isn't the case.
