Seeing that MS offers the same on demand video as every major cable provider, I'd put money on the fact that Sony surpasses MS before the current product cycle is finished.
What? I'm confused... MS offers the same on demand as every cable provider? Since when? On cable there are a hell of a lot of movies I can watch for free (That's how I finally saw Easy Rider and Chinatown) on Xbox Live I can watch one episode of South Park for free.
I mean is MS *did* offer the same on-demand as cable companies... Sony would be in a world of trouble. Hell... SONY should offer the same on demand. Have all the old, classic movies for free, and let people pay for new releases. If they could do what they promised with the PS2 (which started this whole "console war" with microsoft in the first place) and turn the PS3 into a REAL entertainment center... with simultaneous releases in theaters and on the PS3... they would BURY not just Microsoft... but everybody else.
I don't think the film industry is ready for that though. I think it's inevitable... but the distributors and everybody else involved in the movie theater business in America would raise pure hell.
A lot of times I really WANT to see a movie (I can think of a dozen recent examples), but because there's no real theater near me right now, and I don't have a car (in Paris this wasn't an issue... there are movie theaters every three or four blocks) I just wouldn't make it out there. The last movie I saw in theaters was Sweeney Todd and that was a loooooooooong time ago.
But if they had the same movies in theaters available on the PS3... I wouldn't even care if they charged movie theater prices... it would be worth it for me to not have to go outside. Have a bunch of buddies over with booze and women and my giant TV and home theater system (then all those women I've been meeting from AFF...)
Sigh... but the American entertainment system has always lacked vision. They were slow to go digital, they've been slow to embrace MP3s, and they'll be slow to get with the program in terms of downloadable films.
I mean I like theaters and all... but there are very few movie PALACES left. Now there are just a bunch of corporate Cracker Jack boxes and suburban cubicle dives. In 2008 you'd really be better off watching new movies at home.