Chris Kohler
Culture

CNN on PS3: "The Chrome-Trimmed Headstone On the Grave Of Convergence"

There’s likely no sound bites in this CNN Money wrapup of the PlayStation 3 that you haven’t heard a hundred times before, but how can I resist that phrase? Indeed, the PS3 may be the chrome-trimmed headstone on the grave of convergence. It has been a long-held, oft-stated dream of both Sony and Microsoft… that […]

TombstoneThere's likely no sound bites in this CNN Money wrapup of the PlayStation 3 that you haven't heard a hundred times before, but how can I resist that phrase?

Indeed, the PS3 may be the chrome-trimmed headstone on the grave of convergence. It has been a long-held, oft-stated dream of both Sony and Microsoft... that videogame consoles are little Trojan horses. [...] Nintendo took a different tack. When you buy a videogame console, the company says, you want to play games.
Period. A console is not a Swiss Army knife. [...] If you want a DVD player, you'll buy a DVD player.

I've never been too big on "convergence," having seen it fail over and over again with CD-i, LaserActive, PSX, and on and on. Then again, I didn't buy a DVD player -- I used my PlayStation 2. Maybe convergence only appeals to people who were going to buy a video game system anyway, which means it doesn't really work at all. What do you guys think?

Where Sony went wrong [CNN]