Why Sony?  Why do you continue to make decisions that I am sure you think are “strategic,” that make it seem like you want to kill your ability to sell consoles.  First you limit the PAL backwards compatibility, and now you announce the future release of a 600$ Blu-Ray player.  I can see this working one of two ways.  One:  the consumer walks into a store and sees a 600$ stand alone Blu-Ray player and thinks, “wow I could just pay 600$ and get a ps3 which plays games too.”   Two:  the same consumer thinks “well I dont care about games, and I bet this stand-alone player has better quality, so why go with a PS3.”

Sony, this could work out very badly for you.  But that is just my opinion.  My roommates seem to think that the consumers will buy the PS3 because it plays Blu-Ray movies and games.  I just hope the quality between the two is negligible enough to make move watchers desire the PS3.

Chufmoney

…But IGN Gear has a pretty excellent interview up with Joone from Digital Playground, who exposed the whole situation in the first place during CES.

A litany of previous HD Porn posts:

Sony Officially Has a Problem
In All Fairness, Sony Might Not Be Completely Suicidal
The Absolute Last Time I’m Going To Write About Blu-ray and Porn

-Aegies

So, this is the third time. After about a week or so going back and forth, the story is more the first and less the second. While Sony and the BDA don’t have an official stance preventing their licensed Blu-ray reproduction facilities from pressing adult content, this doesn’t help the adult industry much. Sony, as the main force behind the format, still owns the largest (by quite a margin) Blu-ray production facility, Sony DADG. According to Computerworld, via Gizmodo, Sony has decreed that Sony DADG will not print adult content. So, while the BDA has publicly stated otherwise, Sony as a company is essentially saying that porn isn’t necessary. Bringing up the whole Beta Video situation often raises the hackles of many; “Porn wasn’t a major factor!” they scream. Well, they’re part right. It wasn’t the only factor certainly. But it was important. The other major factor was price. Unfortunately, Blu-ray seems to be repeating the past in that arena as well. Do some checking on it if you’re feeling skeptically frisky. I like Amazon, because they’ll list MSRP next to their price. And like the title says, I’m not posting specifically about this anymore, unless Sony officially changes their mind. If they’re smart, they will.

So in light of my earlier tirade over the folly of having a high definition format sans sexually explicit content, we now have an official comment on the subject from Marty Gordon, the Vice Chair of the Blu-ray Disc Association’s US Promotions Committee:

Keeping in mind that running damage control has been a constant in Blu-ray’s lifespan, it’s still good to see at least an attempt to ameliorate the no-porn stance. But even if there’s no official policy at Sony or from the BDA stating that adult content is verboten, there may still be an implied disapproval towards the manufacturing apparatus for it. Not only that, but according to adult industry insiders, Blu-ray is significantly less financially feasible than HD-DVD. If these companies even perceive that releasing on Blu-ray is difficult and expensive, then they’re going to avoid it and take the cheaper, easier alternative. It’s a circuitous problem.