Dumb move on Sony's part considering that XBL is consistantly outtsells even iTunes when it comes to digital downloads of TV shows,Movies, and other media both standard and HD(NON MUSIC OF COURSE).Anyone that doesn't have a channel and/or media not up on XBL for pay for DL is only robbing themselves of some nice profit potential.

The 5500 is the answer to ALOT od people's problems.I support both HD movie formats and would love to have a full featured all-in-one.The Samsung BDP5500 at $599 seems like it would fit that bill VERY nicely.I can easily see this player selling aggresively o the street for about $450-$475 and gaining a strong loyalty from others that support both HD movie formats also.

As an owner of both HD formats, this comes as no surprize to me.What Stringer is likely trying to say is that Sony simply cannot afford to compete with HD DVD with the prices that the HD DV players have been lowered to recently(90,000 HD DVD players sold in 1 weekend is a hit, $97 or $300,only the fact that 90,000 sold matters to Sony).He's also likely admitting the loss of Paramount has hurt BRD player sales alot more than Sony was initially letting on.He also might be looking for a way to make a last dirch effort to unify the formats, if such a thig is even possible anymore.

Sony has been hemmoraging green for a few years now and obviously cannot compete with HD DVD at the new player price points because of the losses they have taken and continue to take on every PS3 they sell.With the PS3's lack of a decent number of heavy hitting games this holiday and being relegated to 3rd place in the console war, Sony can't rely on the PS3 to fight wars on 2 fronts.

The U.S. DOES have the RS:Vegas demo available already, the only trip is that you either have to be subscribed to or buy the OXM magazine that comes with a monthly demo dvd and the RS:Vegas demo is exclusive to the magazine for a few weeks.After the exclusivity period passes, then it will be on North American XBL I believe.

BTW i am currently playing the demo and all i can say is download it as soon as it pops up on British XBL because the demo is easily the best demo i've played in a long time.

Any move that's a positive one for Sony in Japan is a good one, but is this really a positive move for Sony when they clearly cannot afford to lose more money all the while betting the house on this launch.They've already given Japan the cold shoulder by only launching 100k units there to bein with.

This will have little to no effect however and i doubt the $499 price will be dropped in the U,S. anyway where the bulk of systems has already been confirmed to be the $599 unit anyway.

In the end it's a small victory for the Japanese consumer but a loss for Sony itself and has no effect on the U.S. PS3 or it's launch(as of now)that anyone know's of.