Our writers debate the finer points of the ever changing situation for Sony's next-gen console.

An 80GB model has just been announced for Korea. The 20GB model has been dropped entirely, and there are rumors of all sorts of other changes in the works, including the addition of vibration back into the controller.

We asked our team of writers, "Where do you see the PS3 going from here? How can it catch up to the Wii and Xbox 360, and does it have any answer for the hit titles coming out on the other consoles?"

These, are their answers to those questions.

Evan Lahti

People in the industry seem to feel that Sony's pricepoint is the first wall it has to break down for gamers. You've got people like Yves Guillemot of Ubisoft saying that the PS3 needs to drop it's price "quite significantly," and even Sony's own CEO, Howard Stringer, saying, "If we fail, it is because we positioned PS3 sales as the Mercedes of the videogame field." Whatever your qualms about the $600 pricetag, the level of weakness Sony's demonstrated to its consumers and investors should be more concerning. First they delayed the European launch into March, then they alienated us with bizarre advertising, now they're launching different models in different territories, and Sony Computer Entertainment's CEO, Ken Kutaragi, just retired last month.

It doesn't take an industry analyst to say that Sony hasn't played its cards well since launch. I have the feeling that Sony convinced itself that Blu-ray was going to carry the system from the get-go: in the eyes of developers, it was a more spacious format, and in the eyes of consumers, something they could watch HD movies on. When Sony introduced the original PlayStation, it allowed the company to worm its way into the industry by charming third-parties with the allure of the CD-ROM format, which granted developers a greater working space for their games. What's different in this instance is that the technology gap between DVD and Blu-ray isn't as significant over CD and cartridge.

The answer has to be software. Gamers, for all their fanboy tendancies, are known to be a forgiving and forgetful bunch if a company is able to kick out quality titles, and that's precisely what Sony hasn't done. Microsoft has an attractive exclusive lineup in 2007 in Crackdown, BioShock, Mass Effect, Shadow Run, Forza Motorsport 2, Too Human, Blue Dragon, and Halo 3 -- they've given gamers reasons to buy their console. Sony does have the handicap of launching a year later, but if they plan on earning a better market share in 2007, they've simply got to do what they did in previous generations: get developers to innovate on the software level, and keep that content exclusive to its platform.