Sony Bets Its Future On Irrelevant Technology?

We’ve talked before about our bewilderment over the race of next generation disc formats (BlueRay and HD-DVD). Almost a year ago, Hedyeh Parsia wrote a detailed piece on the battle for PSFK and said:

"As Toshiba and Sony duke it out, PSFK thinks the real debate lies in whether a disc, regardless of its format, can compete with digital downloads in the medium to long term. No doubt that the two giants will make superior products, but haven’t consumers already moved away from the physical?"

Now, Reuters reports that

With the launch of its PlayStation 3 video game console six months away, Sony Corp. is gearing up for an all-out battle to put the electronics and entertainment conglomerate back on a growth path. At stake is not just pole position in the $25 billion video game industry, but dominance in the next generation of DVDs, the commercial viability of Sony’s Cell microchips and possibly control over living-room electronics around the world. Sony needs a hit.

Sony have a reputation of trying to force their own restrictive technology on consumers and losing – their own MP3 format, the PSP UMT disk drive. Is the BluRay another expensive turkey?

Reuters.com