Sony's Jack Tretton has been talking about just how tough it is to sell an expensive piece of equipment at a time where many people have lost their jobs and are too scared to spend exorbitant amounts of money on a game device. Likening the experience to weathering a storm, Tretton's crossing his fingers and hoping 2008 isn't as bad as 2009.

"It's like being out there in a storm - it does cause you to question your conviction, and tie yourself to the mast and weather the storm," he states. "We have hit a very challenging period of trying to sell future technology, a high-end device, but is on the high-end retail pricing spectrum, at a time when people's disposable income is limited. But I think the fact we were successful in that says people are getting the message, that you get tremendous value when you buy a PlayStation product.

"Yes there are cheaper machines out there, but not ones that deliver the degree of value for the money that ours does."

Value is a subjective thing, of course, and it's quite obvious that gamers are perceiving superior value elsewhere. I'm going to have limited sympathy for a company that ripped out PS2 backwards compatibility, especially since being able to play old PSOne games is where my PS3's current value comes from. Still, I guess if there's one thing you have to admire Sony for, it's the conviction to do whatever it wants, even in the face of a world telling it that it's wrong. 

Oh, and the PS3 isn't "future technology," because it already exists, you pretentious little man.