this year will be very bad for the PS3. very... very bad.
but sony will live and fight another day.
they are getting thier ass kicked, cause lets be honest here...
while they may have the best gaming console on the planet, no one wants to spend $600 on a console.
the 360 is already well past the point most people are comfortable spending for a console, and thats only $400.

honestly, what sony needs to do... is the exact opposite of what they are doing.

2 months ago, they killed off the 20 gig PS3.
a few months before that, they killed off the emotion chip.

heres what I would suggest for them.

the 20 gig PS3 is $399 or so isnt it?

kill off the emotion chip.
screw it. its nice and all, but its not the driving force to the PS3.
sure, people will about. but let them.
the reason people buy next gen consoles... is for next gen games.
atleast, most do.
so cut off the emotion chip, let them , but its a small segment they lose, but they have to lose, in order to maintain a profit that insures some chance of survival.

lose the chip - less cost to make PS3's = good in the end.

next, cut down the 20 gig drive to the absolute lowest end drive you can.
sure, it wont be great, but its still better then memory cards. a super cheap hard drive may not be great as a bragging point, but lower costs, will help sell PS3's. more PS3's getting sold, more game companies want thier games on the consoles.
if anything, the WII should prove, that people dont want absolute futuristic stuff. cheap consoles sell...

small hard drive, no emotion chip, + 100 dollar price drop = $299 PS3.

tell me, wouldnt you buy that?
hell yeah I would.
especially since us modders know we can put our own drives in it.

now, heres the second punch...

online games.
get a online arcade, and start porting every cheap old SNES/Gensis/Neo Geo... just old classic games, and get them on there cheap.
sell them cheap, $2 a day or something.
get people hyped on Sony Online.... just like Xbox Live.
then Undercut MS by making it cheap.
no Silver, and Gold and such.
just one price, for full access for a year to all content.
then classic games cheap.
then start porting every TV show that has some following, star gate, hercules, xena, futurama, star trek, x files, wrestling... everything thats "guy related".
then get movies, lots and lots and lottttts of them.
not 150 like Xbox live, but 2000 or something.
just undercut the competition.

thats a definate weakness sony has... sony online is just bland.
they need to get it 10 times more evolved.

cheap PS3 + better overall online experience... will bring the gamers back.

make me a PS3 tommorow, with a 10 gig hard drive, for $300 and I'd be buying it tommorow, without a doubt.