Looking back in hindsight, was the PS3's blu ray dvd a blessing or a curse ?

May be...

Also the flash card reader, hdd etc etc ! Did these things help enhance the game play of the PS3 or were they introduced before their time !

Well for the people who could "afford" to part with $400-$600 bucks it was a blessing as it introduced high definition gaming to those who of course had an hdtv. For the masses however from a cost perspective it was highly ill advised to introduced a technology (blu ray) that wasn't a house hold staple in the tech world which made the PS3 a very pricey "gaming console" !



As far as the flash card reader and hdd etc, I don't think console gaming should have an hdd simply because now you're moving into the realm of pc gaming and that isn't where console gaming needs to go.



Now we have to sit through lengthy downloads and updates ala the pc just to play a game or to get a working feature into our PS3 !



I don't quite understand why anyone would want a gaming console that can house music, video and photo files since most people use their pc for that but then again I never use any of those features on my PS3 ! I watch some blu ray movies and play my games but as far as storing music, photos and video files, I've yet to find a reason to do so when my PC can do all of that just fine if not better !



Lastly I think Sony should have waited until blu ray drives were priced at a point that it wouldn't add a hefty price tag to the PS3 but since they introduced blu ray before the format had a foothold, it made the PS3 quite unaffordable for most gamers.

Nothing was introduced before its time. Sony introduced the Blu-ray because like the Beta (Sony product) and VCR before it, Sony was trying to introduce a new format (against HD-DVD) that would give them a lot of money. While Blu-ray is somewhat new to consumers, it has been around since the late '90s. Sony had to do a lot of research to get Blu-ray to where it is now, but it didn't just happen overnight.



Same goes with the HDD. The PS2 had an add on HDD, and it was the next logical step in gaming consoles, especially since computers have been using HDD's for a while.



Flash card readers are just an added convenience that current PS3 owners don't even get included in their PS3 (they have to buy external flash card readers). Basically the PS3 is a computer, hence the name Sony COMPUTER Entertainment, and is what Sony was planning on doing for a long time, and since the PS3 is a computer, everything a computer can have connected holds true for the PS3 (and somewhat on the PS2).



**EDIT**

@ Phade3: If Sony would have waited for Blu-ray technology to come down in price, they would have lost out of the format war and you would be buying an HD-DVD add on for your PS3. Blu-ray is a Sony product (started by Pioneer), just like Betamax was, and companies are all about getting new ideas to the market to make them money. Sony lost to the VCR (JVC product) because the Betamax was ahead of its time picture quality wise, but you couldn't hold as much information on a beta tape as you could on a VHS tape. Sony did just the opposite this time. Not only is the picture quality still superior, but Sony made the Blu-ray hold more information than an HD-DVD could.

sony ps3 bluray = blessing

microsoft xbox360 = curse

blessing

i love argentina